The Christmas Bullet

[trof]

Doctor William Christmas believed that struts were unnecessary and that an aeroplane's wings should be free to flap like a bird's. Unfortunately, on the first flight of his 'Bullet' fighter, also known as the Christmas Strutless Biplane and by other names, the wings did exactly that and then came adrift. The pilot was killed instantly. A second Bullet did exactly the same thing a few months later. Christmas claimed all sorts of things, among them that he had 'hundreds' of aeronautical patents and that he was swamped by orders for Bullets from Europe and by million-dollar offers to rebuild Germany's air forces. None of them were true, but he did get the US Army to pay him handsomely for his wing design. Or so he said.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/christmas_bullet.php

[trof]

1. Not even Parche?

jeez

[DarkTirade]

2. Wow... talk about a lack of basic engineering knowledge.

Or was a lack of knowledge of physics? Equal and opposite reaction means that the wings get an upward force equal to or greater than that of the plane itself. Hmm... I wonder what would happen if they weren't supported properly? :crazy: