io9
This Canadian Vickers Velos airplane is infamous as the ugliest and most worthless plane in the world. Not only does it have the distinction of appearing in Popular Aviation's "Ugly Plane Gallery," but even the Royal Canadian Air Force (who commissioned it as an "Aeroplane for Photographic Surveying" in 1926) called it "most unsuitable for any operation." Only one was ever made, and it flew for part of the year in 1928.
According to the Mark Perry, who nominated the Velos as Ugliest Plane in Popular Aviation:
What happens when airplanes are designed by committees (No, really, a Canadian government committee laid down the specs for this turkey). Not only does it looking like a flying streetcar, but this Canadian Vickers Velos is on record as being the worst aircraft ever built in Canada - a complete dog. The test pilots flew it only under protest, and it was known as "The Dead Loss" around the factory.
Velos [Royal Canadian Airforce]
Ugly Plane Gallery [Popular Aviation]
Comments
Poor thing.
I'll have to look it up now. :)
Smithers, I've designed a new plane. I call it the Spruce Moose, and it will carry 200 passengers from the New York's idle-wild airport to the Belgium Congo in 17 minutes!
That's quite a nice model, sir.
Model?
Now, to the plant! We'll take the Spruce Moose! Hop in!
But sir…
(Pulls a gun on him) I said "Hop in!"
Ah Mr. Burns and his places that don't exist anymore...
"I'd like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?"
'This book must be out of date - I don't see 'Prussia,' 'Siam' or 'autogyro.''
That sounds really familiar....oh right, my last performance evaluation. Well, at least I'm not that ugly.
Igor Sikorsky made some huge bombers for the Czarist Army in WWI era that could have picked that thing up and carried it.. They were tramlike too, with balconies and sash windows, i think... They worked, but they were pretty damn steam-punk.
Looked like the cover are for "After Bathing at Baxter's" That, post punkers, is an old, old hippie reference.
The USSR had some howlingly ugly aircraft between the wars, like the Tupolev ANT-20.
And then there was Germany's Blohm-Voss BV-141, which was to all accounts a great plane, but so bizarre looking that nobody wanted to fly it.
You know, i actually saw a flying wing bomber in flight when i was a kid. They were at Westover, near my home in Connecticut.. That was a thrill.
It's ugly, but not near the ugliest. There's a nice list of uglies that blow that thing out of the sky.
[www.airlineempires.net]
The Caproni Ca-60 Transaero would have to be the ugliest plane ever, since it was just a boat with three sets of wings.
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