You have to admit that the folks at RFB were not afraid to think outside the box. Everything they ever made was unique.

I am so glad to see someone continuing RFB's vision. The Fantrainer was an amazing aircraft and deserves to be continued.

The actual key selling pointz for the RFB Fantrainer was that the fan did not develop much thrust at low rpm, it thus emulated the behaviour of jet engines which require well over 30% throttle to really move a plane. This plane was to be a cheap way to get pilot trainees to accustomed to jet engines behaviour. The German MFD found this to be a solution to a non-problem as pilots found little difficulty in the switch between jets and classic propeller planes.

Personally I think the idea of a duct fan as a pusher design for civil aviation is great. No more exposed spinning props to have to worry about someone walking into. Plus it has to be more efficient than a standard prop.

This is one of the coolest non-combat aircraft I've ever seen a DARK channel video on! I'm so pleased that company has the rights for the Fantrainer/Fanliner, but what about all the other ducted fan technology? Did they get the rights to that? I would love to see what that four ducted fan VTOL looking thing would look like with modern materials computer aided design and other technological developments.

Ducted fans, both electric and gas powered, have been used to simulate jet engines in RC model aircraft forever. They work great and can produce exceptional thrust in the same airframe.

I'm surprised these didn't garner more interest. With cost being so low, they could get a LOT of potential pilots into seats and use them as a try-out aircraft. If you can't handle a fanjet, then you can't handle a jet.

Why do you keep repeating the same few sentences?

The idea was to simulate the characteristics and challenges of jet training. A ducted fan design optimized for best fight characteristics and economical operation would still be a great aircraft.

Thank you for posting this historic video. I got to fly one of these privately owned Fan Tainers in Ingolstadt Germany back in 2012. I believe this was a 400 model, but still climbed and rolled quite well and was, like the video said very economical to fly. At that time I think we were burning about 200 euros/hr.

Hanno Fischer designed virtually the first post war German aircraft even before the bans lifted - this became the RW3 Multoplane and grandfather of the fantrainer. As far as jet like handling goes there was one slight 'flaw' in that the Fantrainer 'blew' part of the rudder which gave enhanced rudder effect particularly at low speed which was UNjet like and could make for some ingrained bad habits eg in a stall turn you get more effect from the propblast . I designed and built a somewhat smaller version of my RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force ) basic trainer specification AFST 5044 (1980) the Slipstream Sapphire (and smaller civil OPAL as a test bed using also the Allison C250 - then used in the GAF Nomad . That program was a fiasco and ended the local aircraft industry with the Pilatus PC7 being bought Hanno was helpful with advice and I had a set of the manuals for the RW3 from the original importer in the 1950s My design had the prop behind the tailsurfaces (also T tail ) and hence no unwanted rudder 'boost'

Back years ago I had an RC model of the RFB Fantrainer, it flew outstandingly good I loved flying it. When I move I gave it and bunch of other models away. I wish I had it back.

The private market would certainly be interested in this if this is comin back!

I grew up just a few miles north of the plant in Mönchengladbach and remember the distinct sound the FanTrainers made. I also saw the one FanLiner designed by the German industrial designer Luigi Colani at an airshow once. Interesting design for sure!

My favorite fan plane was the Rohr 2-175. Wish that made it into production.

If they made that aircraft using modern composites, it might be a whole lot lighter and more agile. It may even be possible to make an electric-powered LSA version for short-flight recreational use. The basic design looks quite good, even by today's standards.

Man... I promise you, there is few moments in my life that I regret not been a billonaire... this is one of them... I LOVE the Fan-T... it reminds me an acrobatic little plane from Macross/Robotech and I would give one of every duplicated vital organ in my body if I can get one...

This video made my day! I love this aircraft! Thanks for doing a video on it!

The Royal Thai Air Force took the Fantrainer out of service in 1994, replacing them from 1993 with the Aero L-39. While there had been concern about Fantrainer parts availability the fall of the Soviet Union and attractive terms from the Czech Aero company for the trainer/attack variant made acquisition a sensible move.

So I’m guessing it’s considered a turboprop because of its configuration. It really blurs the definition of turboprop and turbofan. Intriguing.

I wish them so much success. Ducted fan especially placed where it aids laminarity of the flow along the fuselage seems like a best option.

Thank you for covering this little gem of an aircraft! I have always loved the concept and design, since I first read about it about 20 years ago.

You list the SEPECAT Jaguar as a trainer! There may have been trainer versions but it was pimarily a Ground Attack aircraft (what we would have termed, back in the day, a Mud Mover). It have the the advantage that after delivering its munitions across the battlefields of Central Europe and as we know now, causing alarm and despondancy amongst the soviet horde, it was a capable fighter too for its journey back to base. It was capable of operating from forward temporary airstrip made out of lengths of Autobahn as it was comparitvely small and light compared to say - the Buccaneer which was originally built for carrier operations and therefore built of sturdier stuff. The Jaguar was not known as a trainer, certainly in the RAF, for that - look at the Hawk.

I bet if you decreased the horsepower of the engine and went to a piston, then go to a 4 seat configuration it would make a great GA aircraft in the American market. Its unique, great visibility, and with the ducted fan you don't have a man-splitter out front. Too bad no one saw it that way.

I remember seeing Popular Mechanics articles about these planes. They showed fantastic promise. I'm sorry they didn't catch on.

It's a beautiful design. I'm not sure how 'no one really trusts' belongs in the title, seeing as it had just one fatal accident in its development. It's easier to imagine its petite size was more of a barrier to air force jocks. It seems fuel efficiency wasn't/isn't a pressing concern for any military.

According to wikipedia, the main reasons ducted fans have never become useful production aircraft are: Drawbacks include increased weight due to the added structure of the shroud, a need for precision in tolerances of blade-tip to shroud clearance, a need for better vibration control compared to free-air propellers, and complex duct design requirements. Lastly, when at high angles of attack, the shroud can stall and produce high drag.

“Almost Completely Changed Military Aviation” No it didn’t. It had virtually no impact on military aviation. Seemed like a good idea at the time but, for whatever reasons, nobody took it up. This channel needs new scriptwriters; was it three or four times you told us it was cheaper to buy and operate than the alternatives? And you went over the same ground twice about the Luftwaffe funding two prototypes. No upvote today.

The Edgely Optica was developed and manufactured at Old Sarum near Salisbury, propelled by a ducted fan behind the passenger compartment

Here's our trainer! Do you guys like it? Nah, we'll pass... K, well shoot, maybe we just sell them to the public, then.... Hey, that's a really nifty product you got there! Any chance they could be made into trainers?

Another ducted fan aircraft that didn't do too well was the Optima. It was promoted as a cost effective alternative to helicopters. Unfortunately it had some very nasty stall characteristics, particularly in the event of engine failure. The duct seriously impaired elevator and rudder effectiveness with a dead fan. Ta.

I really been wanting to built my own aircraft, make it as close to a jet as possible yet still be a propeller plane and be affordable to use, i think this just answered a few of my design issues.

The original two RFB fanned aircraft always seems to be interesting to me... although the large, mostly flat, areas behind the fan seemed to be a lot of wetted surface, and therefore drag, with little reason for that large area? I would really like to hear more about why various operators had trouble with them.

Fantrainer was cool but the Fanliner is still the coolest 2 seater ever. With Colani interior, jet feeling and unbelievable seating position Hanno Fischer made a masterpiece. It was for sale in the late 90´s but as a student I could not afford the 50.000 DM plus the necessary test pilots license. What a shame. The RW3 shown early in the movie is probably the plane with the highest ratio outside landing / regular landing of all planes :-) Hanno still flew it in his 90ies and may be still doing so. RFB´s test pilot Knöpfle was an ex-WW2-fighter pilot and I never saw anyone crazier than him :-)

Kinda reminds me of the Edgley EA-7.

That civilian version at 4:34 is one gorgeous machine.

Excellent presentation as always! So sad that a great plane was denied it's full glory.

The heavy metal music is way too noisy in the background.

Imagine if the P-39 / P-63 had done their mid-craft engine placement but instead of the weird coaxial power shaft to a front propeller, they'd done a ducted fan like this. It would've been amazing.

I could totally see some techie making an electric version of this

I made a RFB fan Trainer as a model with an .049 engine to heavy I never made it out of ground effect but fun )

With use of lightweight material like fiberglass composites..like in the longeze..and advanced engine design and turbopro engines.. This aircraft would be a great fighter... And as a drone theycould be built in great numbers.... I see a great future for a platform like this...manned or unmanned... Great video....

Would make a nice low cost ground attack platform for countries of more modest means. Hell it might even be a candidate for mild thrust vectoring. 🤔

A wonderful airplane, and the inspiration for Rick Hunter's pane in Robotech (yes, I know. Macross). I do wonder why you chose to use a WW2 film clip when mentioning the postwar Luftwaffe.

Interesting but why not simply use turbofan engines? The world distance record of 40000km belongs to a simple off the shelf Williams FJ44.

It's a beautiful trainer. Very cost effective. I wish it would have found more buyers around the world.

It's a mid mounted ducted fan POWERED BY A JET TURBINE

Skip the Gear Reducer ! Add Full Force Ducted ,Gimballed Air Flow for Short Runway ,T&L Its got Junior Harrier Characteristics with a Unique Form in Flight !.

One of these planes can be seen parked outside Thailand's Nakhon Phanom airport. I've been curious about this particular plane for quite some time but have never been able to determine its identity.

“Fighter Jets developed into costy machines “ when I look at the cost for a sexy F-35 this is a humble understatement. Between a double decker of WWI and a F-35 is a statistical significant increase of cost noticeable. I did some research. For the cost of one F-35 you can buy a fleet of double deckers.

One should compare it to a turboprop PC-6, PC-9, PC-21 not an Alpha jet or BAE Hawk. The light turboprop trainer market is very hard to break into, as there are many options available. Unfortunately if the German government doesn't support it, who will buy it?

The first airplane that I saw that had a ducted fan on it like was the Pegasus P-400t. It was a canard style aircraft. I remembered seeing it on the 1980s TV show cartoon called Macross and Robotech. One of the characters in there had one of the XB-NKI Pegasus P-400T I also remembered liking the Edgey Optica too.

I recall seeing this plane in Popular Science magazine. It really made me want to fly.

New drinking game: Take a shot every time the narrator says something about this plane's operating costs being below that of trainer jets. You may die of alcohoo poisoning. 😂

The T-38 Talon is my favorite trainer jet

Inspiration for Rick Hunters bird in Robotech.

Having trained in T-37s, I prefer the advantages of side-by-side instruction over that offered by the tandem seat arrangement of the RFB.

It's a brilliant concept. Why it was never fully invested in by any air force or even private organisations is just odd. A huge missed opportunity. It surely makes huge sense in these financially pressed times to use an aircraft like this instead of a rattly old piston powered trainer. This aircraft could be modified to run on sustainable jet fuel and be a world beater!! It's neat and compact, ruggedly built and is good looking too! I wish them every success with a re-launch of the design. (I am old enough to remember seeing the original demo models at air shows here in the UK!)😊

After watching this video I have to admit this is a smart concept and a very attractive plane.

I want to see a medium bomber with a blended wing, using this engine mount. Get the biggest high bypass fan in the civvy world, put it in the middle of a blended wing. Channel air to & from the turbofan so it's stealth af.

Can I just say. You deserve Mr Beast kind of money and notoriety for your absolutely phenomenal channel. I've followed you from literally day one and I've always been blown away by your ability to source some of the most interesting footage and provide the most interesting information on the widest spectrum of subjects I've ever seen or watched. If you all agree, give this comment a massive thumbs up and do the same for this video. Well done sir and please never stop wowing me 🎉🎉🎉

This thing must have been the inspiration behind Rick Hunter's Mockingbird Fanjet

They are going about it all wrong. Come out with an experimental fast build kit for the EAA crowd... Go light weight composites, an off the shelf aircraft motor around 200 horsepower, and a basic glass cockpit for single engine IFR operation under $150K... Generate revenue to get profitable first, then worry about other designs like a General Aviation product or two.

There were moments in the video where the profile angle makes this aircraft a dead-ringer (shape-wise) to the Airco DH.1. Nice work! Enjoyable and fascinating presentation!

Honestly If I see something like this flying, I am buying it❤

Well now i know where the plane used in the the early 1980 Japanese cartoon called RoboTech came from. The hero was flying a Fan plane in the start of the show.

Looks like it would be a blast to fly! Probably a little more than the Tweet. The Tweet was fun to fly but very fuel limited to about 1+15 of flight time if you were doing a productive flight profile.

That is a happy turn in aviation.

That's just like the racer flown by Rick Hunter on that fateful day on Macross Island.

What is up with the low background metal music...?

Someone went to the William Shatner school of speaking.

I hope you do not go down the path of ‘music behind dialogue.’ It is a very bad idea.

The fan design is so good, a certain group of people used it on Oct 7th to get over certain border.

This feels like it was written by chat gpt and/or a kid trying to reach a word requirement for their school paper.

I actually had the pleasure of flying this fine aircraft many years ago on MS flight simulator X.

Great vid. One thing, the background music, for me, really took away from the presentation. It drew attention away from the information and subsequent lines of thought, instead the question of " Why is this here?", comes to mind . The information and video presentation was interesting , and neat.

I think it was a great idea. I also think politics and and perhaps unfair competition from the other companies help to scuttle the program.

Love the intro with the F-104! Top Notch.

The exposure this video is giving this design may well reignite interest within the civil aviation community.

Another great video of an aircraft I had never heard of. Thanks

I’m so happy that another German company took on the production and legacy of this beautiful airplane

With that efficiency it sounds to me like the perfect platform for an entirely Electric powertrain! With huge power and so cheap and simple to run it could finally be the fantastic aircraft it was always meant to be.

Guess that's where the Fan Racer in the pilot episode of Macross got the idea from.

For those viewers, who are familiar with the animes, this design was used for the aircraft of Macross' Ichijo Hikaru. And it is interesting how the Wankel engine was associated with failure.

Robotech - Rick Hunter's Circus flyer!!

Didn't Rick Hunter, in Robotics Macros Saga, fly something similar to this?

Great video. I remember these in Mönchengladbach when I was training for my PPl in the 70’s

This aircraft looks like it had some significant influence on the design of the Optica spotter plane in the late 70s

Very interesting info. Except for the poor editing of redundancy and repetition during the first five minutes. The Wankel engine was a great idea that, so far, has never met its promise. Not surprised they adopted the Alison engine. Which also had its limits.... RFB wouldn't survive American Corporate culture....

Question for pilots: Why is it inherently different to learn to fly a jet? They're generally faster, but not always. I'm sure they have different considerations for how they handle fuel or emergency shutdowns, but when it comes to just holding the yoke and controlling the machine, isn't it just a matter of varying thust, which props can also do?

Time to revisit this intriguing design. Maybe for more conventional rather than the trainer aircraft.

Small criticism on this video, you repeated "it's known for it's mid mounted engine, which emulates jet fighters at a fraction of the cost"... Probably 3 times, within minutes.

Makes sense. Hope they endure. Very cool airplane.

!!Feedback alert!! If you're not interested, you're allowed to ignore anything anyone says at anytime. I got tired of this video now at 4.5 minutes because I've heard what feels like 5+ reiterations of the fact that this ducted fan trainer was slow but cost less to run. The pace of your script here, for my preferences, is just so slow. Others may like it so maybe you shouldn't adjust that, but feedback is useful in helping us all grow.

That's a Good Looking Bird! Could it compete in the "Advanced Trainer Market" for Civilian Aircraft Training Programs?

"German engineering". As a German, I am very proud of this ingenuity and creativity, coupled with an unconditional desire for perfection! After the current major crisis of values, this will experience its own revival! This time for the benefit of all mankind! There must be a cure for humanity!

Might work well with a turbo diesel. I’m not a fan of the big continental. Wish someone would make another in the 300 hp range.

I would buy one of these if they were sold to civilians. They are so neat and the view while flying has to be fantastic without a propeller in front of you. Maybe even better noise abatement would be icing on the cake.

Excellent video!!

418knots and 4 hours of flight time. That's damn impressive..