The Wright Brothers really do deserve their spot in the history books. They toiled hard for many years until they finally flew and the ’50s and ’60s were especially full of foolish and experimental catastrophes on the way to discovering and perfecting aviation for humans, with plenty of failed designs many of which crash-landed before the Wright brothers soared to success. The brothers finally succeeded in creating flying for the rest of the human race, but it wasn’t a direct flight to success for the gentlemen. These two American pioneers are credited with inventing, building, and flying the first motor operate aircraft successfully. The brothers’ efforts are only one example of a collection of badly failed aircraft designs. Let’s talk about some of the craziest aeronautical ideas that failed to take flight!
The Fisher P-75 Eagle
The Fisher P-75 Eagle was supposed to signify victory. The design of the plane was met with great optimism from many people. The number 75 was borrowed from the French 75-mm handgun which turned the tides of the first world war. The word “Eagle” in ‘’Fisher P-75 Eagle’’, comes from the USA with no further explanation other than that the eagle(Bird) is synonymous with the USA. The aircraft borrowed many aspects from many other existing aircraft that, amalgamating them to create the Fisher. It was very unfortunate that the plane performed poorly under the standards of the aircraft whose features it was built from.
The Fisher P75 Eagle
The Douglas DC-10
The Douglas DC-10 was a tragedy of note. Its disastrous career in the skies led to fifty-five crashes which caused an unfortunate number of deaths. A fatal floor in the plane’s structural design was that the doors opened to the outside rather than inwards, and it was next to impossible to shut the door properly, which was a major safety concern. In 1972 there was an occasion in which the rickety doors blasted open mid-flight and this wasn’t just on one occasion, it happened again in 1974. In 1979 the Douglas had the worst tragedy it could have ever seen in its short-lived career, its wing fell off during a failed takeoff! Thankfully this plane was redesigned from the landing gear to the cockpit for a safer more appropriate design and better usage.
The Douglas DC10
