https://hackaday.com/2022/10/05/ugliest-airplane-ever-built-predicted-the-future/ Skip to content Logo Hackaday Primary Menu * Home * Blog * Hackaday.io * Tindie * Hackaday Prize * Submit * About * Search for: [ ] [Search] October 9, 2022 Ugliest Airplane Ever Built Predicted The Future 28 Comments * by: Al Williams October 5, 2022 * * * * * Title: [Ugliest Airplane Eve] Copy Short Link: [https://hackaday.com] Copy [plane] The airplane that many called "the flying barrel" is also widely considered the ugliest plane ever built. However, [Dark Skies] in the video you can see below argues that the Stipa-Caproni was the direct predecessor of the turbofan engine. Either way, it is an interesting and unique part of aviation history. The plane was built in the days when inventors were experimenting with many different ways to improve aircraft utility and performance. In this case, the inventor built an "intubated propellor" which used a prop to draw air through a venturi tube in an effort to improve engine efficiency. The 570kg vehicle had a wingspan of just over 14 meters and was a bit more than 6 meters long. It could reach about 72 knots and climb to over 3 km. Caproni was known for making odd planes, including one with nine wings. We couldn't help but think that the Stipa-Caproni looks like something you'd see in a cartoon, perhaps flown by an animal character. It had both positive and negative features. The plane was quiet and stable. But it was difficult to take off and land and suffered from drag problems. While there was great interest in the design, but no more planes using the principles in the aircraft were built. However, the Kort nozzle, is a very similar idea used in some maritime applications. Stipa also believed that turbofan jet engines were stolen from his invention, a position that isn't totally far-fetched. We'd love to see an RC version of the plane with modern flight controls. * [share_face] * [share_twit] * [share_in] * [share_mail] Posted in Misc HacksTagged aircraft, history Post navigation - $60 Laser Makes The Cut With New Controller Fixing A 30-year Old Roland Bug - 28 thoughts on "Ugliest Airplane Ever Built Predicted The Future" 1. The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren says: October 5, 2022 at 7:31 pm "We'd love to see an RC version of the plane with modern flight controls." Well, the first RC "jet" models used ducted fans to hide the propellers. (~40 years ago) Report comment Reply 1. RW ver 0.0.1 says: October 5, 2022 at 8:48 pm 67 years at least now, P.E. Norman published in 1955 Aeromodeller Annual... http://modelenginenews.org/gallery/croft /pen/index.html Report comment Reply 1. Mr Name Required says: October 5, 2022 at 9:55 pm To have found that early reference your RW initials must surely be short for 'Ron Warring' ;) Report comment Reply 2. Will says: October 6, 2022 at 6:33 am There's plenty that do the same thing today Report comment Reply 2. Lily says: October 5, 2022 at 7:41 pm https://cms-assets.tutsplus.com/uploads/users/448/posts/22134/ preview_image/preview%20image.JPG Report comment Reply 3. Maya Swift says: October 5, 2022 at 8:37 pm This is very mean he is actually a very beautiful airplane to me. :( Report comment Reply 1. Kannan says: October 6, 2022 at 4:41 am agreed, it is beautiful airplane!! Report comment Reply 2. Turtel Sallzaweidown says: October 6, 2022 at 5:28 am There's a THICC, top-heavy and hollow tictok/instagram joke in there somewhere. I'm just not clever enough. Report comment Reply 3. Inkomstkatt says: October 8, 2022 at 3:49 am Agreed. It's adorable! Report comment Reply 4. Comedicles says: October 5, 2022 at 8:44 pm A fascinating mix of units. Wing span in meters like a class of competition sail plane, length in meters, speed in nautical miles per hour, and altitude in kilometers. (International standards for altitude are feet or flight levels, which are multiples of 500 feet. Gliders in Europe usually use meters and rate-of-climb in m/s instead of ft/min.) Anyway, I am sure the Russians have made many uglier airplanes and the Italians place second. Germany also had some very ugly designs in that 1930 to 45 time frame. Germany might win with a little research. Report comment Reply 1. Gnarflord says: October 6, 2022 at 2:45 am Nah, doesn't seem that special to me. The FCU of the A320 has a button "METRIC ALT" to display the altitude target in meters on the ECAM. If pressed I have the same configuration of units: nautical miles per hour are still useful because they translate nicely to the latitude/longitude grid and of course a european plane measures its wingspans in meters ;) Report comment Reply 1. Comedicles says: October 6, 2022 at 8:03 am More interesting to me is that you can see that it swallowed a Tiger Moth. Report comment Reply 2. lj says: October 6, 2022 at 11:46 am I have a hunch that button is not getting used a lot these days... Report comment Reply 5. GD says: October 5, 2022 at 9:23 pm Looks like a proto GeeBee with cockpit at front (ducted fan/prop not withstanding) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/ Gee_Bee_R-1.jpg Report comment Reply 6. Durandal says: October 5, 2022 at 9:33 pm I don't know if he has improved in the last year (And I didn't watch the embedded video) but the guy running the Dark Skies and other 'Dark' channels on YouTube does very poor research and uses sometimes very wrong and misleading data in his videos. I wouldn't rely on any of his videos to be truthful. I stopped watching his videos because he kept posting videos of relatively known topics with gross errors. Report comment Reply 1. lwatcdr says: October 6, 2022 at 6:06 pm True. And in this case he is also not correct. Turbofan? No, this is a ducted prop. A turbofan has a much higher disk coverage than a prop the fan in turbo fan and it is turned by a gas turbine engine, the turbo in turbofan. Report comment Reply 7. echodelta says: October 5, 2022 at 10:06 pm It's ready to wrap it with a well known beer brand, cause it looks like a flying beer can. Report comment Reply 1. SteveS says: October 6, 2022 at 10:12 am Does Red Bull know about this .... Report comment Reply 8. BrightBlueJim says: October 6, 2022 at 12:35 am Calling a piston-powered ducted fan "the direct predecessor of the turbofan engine" is a bit of a stretch, don't you think? Report comment Reply 1. smellsofbikes says: October 6, 2022 at 8:40 am The British automotive writer LKJ Setright once wrote about the advent of early turbocharged engines, and talked about how as the turbocharger got larger and the power output increased, at some point it made more sense to just use the turbocharger as the propulsive source, and the piston engine as a hot air generator, and then hey you'd invented the jet engine by mistake. He was specifically talking about the development of turbocompound engines, where the turbine was mechanically connected to the crankshaft and was a power recovery system rather than just a system for compressing air. But it was interesting to think about how there's a continuum between a piston engine and a jet engine and you can build a running, useful engine at any point along that continuum. Report comment Reply 1. Andy Pugh says: October 6, 2022 at 12:59 pm I am certain that you own a copy of "Some Unusual Engines" based on this comment. :-) Report comment Reply 9. Marcus says: October 6, 2022 at 12:37 am We also have this beautiful contender: https://sv.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Saab_29_Tunnan Report comment Reply 1. pwm says: October 6, 2022 at 1:25 am And for international readers the English wiki page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_29_Tunnan Report comment Reply 10. Antron Argaiv says: October 6, 2022 at 4:36 am It's a ducted fan. Can't see how you could call it a venturi though...doesn't a venturi need a narrowing cross section? Report comment Reply 11. saidone says: October 6, 2022 at 5:15 am A follow up also existed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Caproni_Campini_N.1 Report comment Reply 1. smellsofbikes says: October 6, 2022 at 8:47 am I believe the first Russian jet was also a motorjet, like the N1, so there was a sort of alternative development family. Report comment Reply 12. Ziggy says: October 7, 2022 at 9:30 am There *is* a RC version of this, at least a one off scratch build. It was at the Rhinebeck Jamboree RC event (Rhinebeck, NY) this September. Here's a photo I took: https://i.imgur.com/ CjyLLZh.jpeg Report comment Reply 13. Pedro says: October 8, 2022 at 2:09 pm This is why I come to internet. Report comment Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy) This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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