5 of the Weirdest Planes of World War II

5 of the Weirdest Planes of World War II | History in the Dark

Рет қаралды 25,429

Күн бұрын

During World War II, a lot of different aircraft designs were built. Sometimes they were good. Sometimes bad. And sometimes they were just PLANE weird!
JUST PLANE WEIRD.
00:00 - Intro
00:51 - Bell XP-77
06:11 - Yokosuka R2Y Keiun
07:37 - Grumman XF5F Skyrocket
10:43 - Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose
15:25 - Miles M.39B Libellula
✈️Further Reading✈️
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_XP-77
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokosuk...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vultee_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_M...
✈️Footage Source✈️
• Bell XP-77
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#top5 #wwii #plane

Пікірлер: 69

@TheTrueAdept 6 ай бұрын

... the Germans had what is probably the weirdest aircraft anyone had: an asymmetrical observation aircraft designated the BV 141.

@EleanorPeterson 6 ай бұрын

A 'baddie' in one of the Indiana Jones films got prop-clobbered by something weird. I think that was a Blohm and Voss design.🤔

@adamshafeeq8685 15 күн бұрын

I still find it funny that it served as inspiration for the B Wing from Star Wars

@williamsquires3070 6 ай бұрын

Some of these, if you affix jet engines (HUGE jet engines), would make passable pod racers from Star Wars. 😊

@g3heathen209 6 ай бұрын

I have a old pocket plane guide from 1940 and it had the skyrocket in it. I guess they thought it would be brought into service at that time.

@patrickporter1864 6 ай бұрын

Looks like one of the French cauldrons.

@mandoprince1 6 ай бұрын

The XF5F Skyrocket bears a strong resemblance to the Bristol Type 153A, a slightly earlier design, which did not get off the drawing board. It was intended to use two Bristol Aquila engines, of 650hp (though the Aquila never made it into production), with a projected (and probably unrealistic) top speed of 370mph and would have been armed with four 20mm cannon.

@JohnnySmithWhite-wd4ey 6 ай бұрын

The F5F Sky Rocket was the mount of the Black Hawks comicbook characters.

@mechamax7919 6 ай бұрын

i actually tried building a Libellula in Simpleplanes, heck, even customized it with jet engines too.

@greghardy9476 6 ай бұрын

The Skyrocket just makes me think of a flying Jeep, I don’t know why…

@jamescambias9189 6 ай бұрын

Blohm & Voss say "halte mein bier."

@kitbuilder3027 6 ай бұрын

Interesting designs for sure.

@EricBrindle-dp8kq 6 ай бұрын

Please More 😊😊😊

@MGower4465 6 ай бұрын

8:07 Looks like a small dog carrying a giant chewtoy 15:53 Perhaps the idea was to confuse enemy pilots which direction the plane is going. Like dazzle camouflage on ships

@nicoferguson1215 6 ай бұрын

You missed one of the weirder ones- the Vought V-173 and Xf-5u "Flying Pancake"(yes, they were two different aircraft, but they share the nickname)

@JohnnySmithWhite-wd4ey 6 ай бұрын

They were experimental fighters. As they developed the X5U they added connecting drive shafts. This made the plane too heavy.

@troygroomes104 6 ай бұрын

V-173 was the prototype of the XF5U , get your information correct

@nicoferguson1215 6 ай бұрын

Funny thing is, it took a wrecking ball to destroy the 5U

@troygroomes104 6 ай бұрын

@nicoferguson1215 I restoring an XF5U for a museum

@nicoferguson1215 6 ай бұрын

@@troygroomes104 would that museum happen to be the "Air Zoo" in Kalamazoo, Michigan?

@cdfe3388 6 ай бұрын

The XF5F looks like something straight out of Crimson Skies.

@GhostBear3067 6 ай бұрын

It does look a bit like the plane on the cover.

@buenapilapil5513 6 ай бұрын

I was thinking the same thing about the Swoose Goose

@kdrapertrucker 6 ай бұрын

Probably where the game developers got their inspiration.

@williamsquires3070 6 ай бұрын

Hmmm, I think I’m detecting a pattern here. Weird aircraft. Weird train locomotives. Yeah, and they’re both on this channel. Weird. 😅

@hawkmoon419 6 ай бұрын

Nice esoteric subject for a video. #1 M38B kind of looks like A twin-engined, single-tailed Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender (Ass-Ender). Vultee XP-54 almost gained new life as the XP-68 Tornado until the Wright R-2160 Tornado engine was cancelled (this also killed the Republic XP-69 Tornado project).

@seanbigay1042 20 күн бұрын

One big issue with the XP-77 not mentioned here: its size. I know pilots talk about strapping on their planes, but this is ridiculous.

@francisboyle1739 6 ай бұрын

What five year-old? I think these were all based on Burt Rutans's baby scribblings! (I mean Rutan was born in 1943 and these designs are all from around '44. Conincidence?)

@moblinmajorgeneral 5 ай бұрын

Honestly, I think the XP-54 isn't that weird. The Swedish had the J21 in a similar configuration. And that plane even had a design that made fitting a jet engine into it not super difficult.

@alancranford3398 6 ай бұрын

I learned about the Grumman Skyrocket in the Seventies through vintage magazine articles and the short-lived Blackhawk comic books. The Skyrocket's main claim to fame was being a propaganda tool.

@MrCateagle 6 ай бұрын

Tandem wings do work well, see the Piaggio P.188 turboprop aircraft.

@jamesricker3997 6 ай бұрын

The P-48 was a insurance policy against a perceived aluminum shortage. It was quickly discovered that American aluminum manufacturers were selling aluminum to Germany through Spanish shell companies.

@hammer1349 6 ай бұрын

From straight side on the Swoose Goose looks kinda meh but from any other angle it looks pretty awesome all things considered. The swivel mountings is way too complicated, especially the moving nose fuselage. Seems to be a running thing with experimental ww2 american plans, that being the engine causing trouble.

@potrzebieneuman4702 5 ай бұрын

I think you'll find the pronunciation of the Miles plane Ly-bell-you-lah , an odd one just like the plane itself.

@wesw9586 5 ай бұрын

Why do I get the feeling that Darkness is a fellow bomber pilot in WT?

@dennisvandermarkt8263 6 ай бұрын

Pilot shredder. Sign me up

@hooongoon1459 6 ай бұрын

Not meant to be an insult or anything but I swear you sound kinda like the Clock King from Batman the animated series Great Vid👍

@oxcart4172 6 ай бұрын

I thought it was going to be all Blohm and Voss!

@tidepoolclipper8657 6 ай бұрын

Focke-Wulf made a few really weird designs and plenty of strange concepts come from Messerschmitt.

@gregkirchner1108 5 ай бұрын

@@tidepoolclipper8657 Or, Horten!

@ItsDaJax 6 ай бұрын

Hey, Darkness.... I gotta secret to tell you. Listen up. Unicycle Lion.😂

@jeremycox571 5 ай бұрын

The British Mosquito was made of wood that’s how it got its nickname The Wooden Wonder and it was extremely successful,

@MrCateagle 6 ай бұрын

F7F built on experience with the F5F and its XP-50 sibling.

@trainstanksandhistory.5721 4 ай бұрын

To be fair you cant really see to land in an aircraft anyway. Most of the time. Instruments are key.

@EleanorPeterson 6 ай бұрын

Yep. It's been a case of "Simplify and add lightness" ever since Icarus and his dad took up flying.

@MrCateagle 6 ай бұрын

XP-77 was first Bell design to not use an Allison engine.

@erikc.1087 6 ай бұрын

*gets to #1* Burt Rutan intensifies

@hrvojestanic1791 6 ай бұрын

#5.... Cocpit is far back, because air drag...look F4 U.... It is same... at wings root. 😊

@hammer1349 6 ай бұрын

Tbf to the corsair, visibility was always going to be an issue with that absolutely jock-off prop, given they also made the wings different for it as well.

@peterstickney7608 6 ай бұрын

Nope - if you take a good look, it's like this: Most of the nose is that long Ranger air-cooled engine, and its cooling ducts. Then there's the space for the Ammunition Cans for the fuselage mounted guns (With the nose gear taking up more space for the same length underneath. You want weights that are going to change to be as near the optimum Center of Gravity if possible, and forward of the CG if you can't be right on it. Then there's the wing, which is where the fuel needs to be (The Center of Gravity. Fuel is the one thing that is guaranteed to change in flight, Next is the cockpit, behind the wing. The Pilot's weight isn't going to change, and there's nowhere else to put the cockpit.

@peterstickney7608 6 ай бұрын

@@hammer1349 The prototype XF4U had a more forward cockpit - it was decided when the revamped the design to make it, well, flyable and useful, to stick the fuel tank (About 240 U.S. Gallons_ over the wing, and move the cockpit back. They also increased the armament from 2 guns (Yeah, less than a Brewster Buffalo) to 6 ..50 cals.

@hrvojestanic1791 6 ай бұрын

@@peterstickney7608 this is because of air drag in case od F4 U 100%....they try to achive laminar flow of air....

@Rangera-ct1xu 6 ай бұрын

the lycoming engine destroyed several promising fighter designs.

@aleksanderdomanski222 6 ай бұрын

This Bell looks like Yak-23, but with piston engine, not jet.

@kdrapertrucker 6 ай бұрын

Russia got a lot of Bell aircraft through lend-lease, and we know that Russia was not above copying aircraft designs (Cough, cough TU-4)

@rbtsubs 6 ай бұрын

Didn't it end on May 9th

@joashhappy5739 6 ай бұрын

@CharlesStearman 6 ай бұрын

If you are referring to WW2 the war in Europe ended on 8th May 1945 but Japan didn't surrender until 15th August.

@rbtsubs 6 ай бұрын

@@CharlesStearman Yeah sure but his comment was about the European theater . That's why it didn't make sense

@poil8351 6 ай бұрын

so the americans were testing their own peoples fighter design. at least they had decent glue or maybe not.

@johnharris7353 6 ай бұрын

If it looks right it is right. These don't look right.

@juergenstange6844 20 күн бұрын

The Germans have built much weirder aircrafts ! The big difference : They worked. Mostly very well 😊

@kadoj 6 ай бұрын

The actual content focus here is awesome, but good gods, how many times can one listen to the very obviously contrived " whu- oh! Uhhhh... does... ummm.... what?!?!" thing at the beginning of, like, every single entry (and in not just this video, but ALL of the releases on this channel dealing with anything "weird" or unusual) before your video-selecting thumb starts to get reeeeeally itchy? We get it, there are unusual aspects involved in the airplane. Thats why theyre in the video. Not tryin to be a jerk, but your scripts would be much better served if you entirely left the contrived faux-surprise bit out altogether.

@NickKirk-ei8gu 6 ай бұрын

Cool footage but in my humble opinion lose the narrator and replace with subtitles making the experience of watching 100% better, or do as i do watch with the sound off.