The Caspian Sea Monster, also known as the “Kaspian Monster”, was an experimental amphibious cargo plane, developed at the design bureau of Rostislav Alexeyev in 1966.

 

Stipa-Caproni

Stipa-Caproni, an experimental Italian aircraft with a barrel-shaped fuselage (1932).  Didn’t the engineers have any sense of aesthetics?

 

Blohm & Voss BV 141

Blohm & Voss BV 141, a World War II German tactical reconnaissance aircraft, notable for its uncommon structural asymmetry.

This thing just looks terrible. A real mutant.

 

Libellula

Libellula, a tandem-winged and twin-engined British experimental plane which gives the pilot an excellent view for landing on aircraft carriers (1945).

 

Northrop XB-35

Northrop XB-35, an experimental flying wing heavy bomber developed for the United States Army Air Forces during and shortly after World War II. Let the imagination soar. Photo: U.S. Air Force

 

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, an American prototype jet fighter, intended to be deployed from the bomb bay of the Convair B-36 (1948). A real eye-catcher. Photo: U.S. Air Force

Lockheed XFV

Lockheed XFV, “The Salmon,” an experimental tailsitter prototype escort fighter aircraft (1953).

 

De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle flying platform

De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle flying platform, designed to carry one soldier to reconnaissance missions (1954).

I wouldn’t want to be on a recon mission standing on top of this thing. The guy would be a sitting duck.

 

Snecma Flying Coleoptere (C-450)

Snecma Flying Coleoptere (C-450), a French experimental, annular wing aeroplane, propulsed by a turbo-reactor, able to take off and land vertically (1958).

 

Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar

Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar, a VTOL disk-shaped aircraft developed as part of a secret U.S. military project (1959).  This contraption had a hard time getting 2 feet (.7 meters) off the ground.

 

Vought V-173

Vought V-173, the “Flying Pancake”, an American experimental fighter aircraft for the United States Navy (1942). Terrible to look at.

 

Bartini Beriev VVA-14

Bartini Beriev VVA-14, a Soviet amphibious aircraft (1970s). This could be mistaken for a UFO.

 

Ames-Dryden (AD)-1 Oblique Wing, a research aircraft designed to investigate the concept of a pivoting wing (1979 – 1982).

 

X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft, a subscale prototype jet built by McDonnell Douglas for NASA (1996 – 1997).

 

The Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano

The Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano was a nine-wing flying boat intended to be a prototype for a 100-passenger trans-atlantic airliner. It featured eight engines and three sets of triple wings. Two pontoons, mounted on each side, were intended to give the aircraft stability. Only one example of this aircraft was built by Caproni. The prototype only made one short flight on 4 March 1921 over Lake Maggiore in Italy. The aircraft attained an altitude of only 18 m (60 ft), then dived and crashed, breaking up on impact. The pilot escaped unscathed. Caproni had the wrecked airplane towed to shore, and announced that he would rebuild it, but that night it burned to ashes.

BBC

In the compendium of complaints about air travel, we have not yet encountered “I do not have an unencumbered, horizon-to-horizon view of the entire planet.” At some point, we surmise, someone must have shared that frustration, because Windspeed Technologies has come up with a solution.

The company’s SkyDeck is a clear bubble that pokes up out of the top of an airplane. One or two passengers access this viewing dome via a staircase, or (rather showily) in an elevator. Once they are head and shoulders above the fuselage, they may rotate their seats to view some particular object — the sunset, or a constellation, or a cloud that looks a lot like a bunny. The bubble is made of the same material as the canopies of a supersonic fighter jet, and it’s a teardrop shape mounted just before the tail to have the smallest possible effect on aerodynamics. Its feasibility has been studied a thousand different ways, patents and trademarks have been applied for, and an aircraft manufacturer has begun offering it as an option on its custom builds — though there are not yet reports of orders taken.

 

 

Does the SkyDeck seem a bit… erm… over the top? Yes, but certainly that is the point. Windspeed identifies business and VIP aircraft as their primary market, where amenities like the SkyDeck make sense because airplanes made of solid gold are too heavy to fly. But the company also sees a commercial application, where, they say, “Current in-flight entertainment offerings have not changed much over the decades” (as if SkyDeck were the logical successor to seatback entertainment systems). In this bright future, airlines would charge passengers for a trip up to the SkyDeck, providing an additional revenue stream for beleaguered airlines that have not yet found enough things to charge for.

Still, it’s awesome. To merely propose cutting a hole in the top of a jet — and then actually figuring out how to make it happen — is an admirable engineering feat. And who hasn’t imagined what the view might be like the outside of a plane, rather than through the tiny windows we’re now supposed to keep shuttered so as not to interfere with the seatback entertainment systems? Given the chance, we’d certainly spend a few minutes enjoying a 360° at 36,000 feet — though we admit to having some concerns about the availability of beverage service up there.