Coronado990
Recruit
- 4
- Sep 16, 2020
I'm John from Framingham Mass and am doing research on the bad, misguided, and/or just plain awful airplanes and designs for my upcoming Podcast.
This is a great resource for not only the planes themselves but the backstory of how they came to be. The history of the Christmas Bullet (a great name for something that looked like a loaf of bread) was fascinating. 'Dr.' Christmas was a better shyster and con artist than an airplane designer. Oh, and he wasn't a Dr. of anything. However he was good at 'doctoring' up the truth, so with NO aeronautical experience, he managed to build two of these death traps.
Two potential test pilots were brought to the plane. One dismissed it immediately and walked away. The other one actually got in the cockpit, tried the controls, and also walked away. He was said to have a serious drinking problem and basically said "I'm not THAT drunk."
My other favorite was the Stavinsky (?) (I can never remember the name) whose landing gear was too big to fit in the wheel wells. This problem was solved by shortening the landing gear just enough so it still wouldn't fit but it was marginally better than before.
However, as the landing gear was shorter, the plane was lower, resulting in the propellor ending up too close to the ground.
While it didn't touch the ground when the plane was parked, the action of the shock absorbers would cause the propellor to hit the ground. This did not phase the designer one bit as he ran into the hanger, got a hacksaw, and cut 4 inches off the blades. No clearance? No problem. However he was not allowed to fly it from the field of the factory for obvious reasons.
He managed to cajole someone at another airfield (how he got it there wasn't mentioned) to let it be flown. While it didn't crash, it flew dreadfully and never reached any appreciable altitude (thankfully) and the pilot managed to land safely.
However, he did declare the plane unairworthy. Rumor has it, the designer was sent to the Gulag where he was given the role of designing boxcars. I can't attest to that, but it's a fitting ending.
As for the chopped blades, I'm sure the measurements weren't what you would call exact; I mean the guy used a hacksaw for heavens sake, so I can only imagine the 'fun' factor was increased by quite a bit.
I've just scratched the surface on these two planes so there is plenty more to come, but thank you for a terrific resource!
This is a great resource for not only the planes themselves but the backstory of how they came to be. The history of the Christmas Bullet (a great name for something that looked like a loaf of bread) was fascinating. 'Dr.' Christmas was a better shyster and con artist than an airplane designer. Oh, and he wasn't a Dr. of anything. However he was good at 'doctoring' up the truth, so with NO aeronautical experience, he managed to build two of these death traps.
Two potential test pilots were brought to the plane. One dismissed it immediately and walked away. The other one actually got in the cockpit, tried the controls, and also walked away. He was said to have a serious drinking problem and basically said "I'm not THAT drunk."
My other favorite was the Stavinsky (?) (I can never remember the name) whose landing gear was too big to fit in the wheel wells. This problem was solved by shortening the landing gear just enough so it still wouldn't fit but it was marginally better than before.
However, as the landing gear was shorter, the plane was lower, resulting in the propellor ending up too close to the ground.
While it didn't touch the ground when the plane was parked, the action of the shock absorbers would cause the propellor to hit the ground. This did not phase the designer one bit as he ran into the hanger, got a hacksaw, and cut 4 inches off the blades. No clearance? No problem. However he was not allowed to fly it from the field of the factory for obvious reasons.
He managed to cajole someone at another airfield (how he got it there wasn't mentioned) to let it be flown. While it didn't crash, it flew dreadfully and never reached any appreciable altitude (thankfully) and the pilot managed to land safely.
However, he did declare the plane unairworthy. Rumor has it, the designer was sent to the Gulag where he was given the role of designing boxcars. I can't attest to that, but it's a fitting ending.
As for the chopped blades, I'm sure the measurements weren't what you would call exact; I mean the guy used a hacksaw for heavens sake, so I can only imagine the 'fun' factor was increased by quite a bit.
I've just scratched the surface on these two planes so there is plenty more to come, but thank you for a terrific resource!
