In the 1940s, the U.S. Air Force thought it would be a good idea to develop a bomber with a nuclear reactor mounted inside the tail of the plane. It was meant to test the feasibility of nuclear-powered aircraft. Granted, they encased the nuclear reactor with 11 tons of lead to protect the crew, which included two nuclear engineers, but chances were, an accident would cause serious radioactive contamination.
This plane was not powered by nuclear energy, six jet engines actually propelled it. But it was provided jet thrust by harnessing nuclear-heated air. The first test flight hit the skies in the summer of 1955. The NB-36 could hit 420 mph and weighed 357,500 pounds. It flew a total of 47 flights before President Eisenhower decided the program was unnecessary which was probably influenced by public concern about a nuclear reactor flying over homes.
The Bell YFM-1 Airacuda
With such a clever name, how could the Airacuda end up grounded? Bell Aircraft Corporation put the YFM-1 Airacuda into the skies on September 1, 1937. The futuristic aircraft was armed with speed and fighting power. A set of 37mm cannon gun turrets were mounted on both wings. Design missteps ultimately rendered the interceptor useless. Besides being heavy and slow, and lacking maneuverability, the weaponry almost literally backfired, in one case, filling the gunners’ compartment with smoke.
The plane had no backup cooling system and they were vulnerable to overheating. Designed for turbo supercharging, the reality generated barely 1,000 horsepower per engine. These and other problems resulted in the Airacuda being shelved after just one squadron was produced.
The Vought F7U Cutlass
The Vought F7U was once flown as a Blue Angel for the Navy until navy men refused to pilot the flight hazard that earned the nickname the “Gutless Cutlass.” Out of the 300 F7Us built, a full one-quarter were destroyed in accidents due to engines that did not have the right stuff.
But when the F7U Cutlass was introduced, it looked like a modern marvel. Sleek design elements featured a blunt, tailless plane, the first of its kind. The wide and imposing sweptwing was believed to be the fighter jet of the future. It featured hydraulically powered controls, but most of the crashes were due to poor hydraulics and not enough thrust. Twenty-five Navy pilots were killed flying the F7U, and many more quit on the spot after flying it.
The PZL M-15 Belphegor
This beast of a plane was created in Poland to modernize Soviet agricultural programs. Specifically, the PZL M-15 Belphegor was to be used for crop dusting over the communist nation’s vast farmlands. The first prototype was tested in 1973. But ultimately, the aircraft lived up to its name. A Belphegor is a demon prince from hell who tricks people into making useless inventions.
The PZL M-15 was a costly project that was completed and presented at the Paris Air Show in 1977, where it came away with its nickname, ”Belphegor” for its ugly appearance. It was a massive disappointment. The biplane, jet-powered crop duster was not only expensive to make but also to operate, and users criticized it harshly. The hulking farmhand hit a maximum speed of just over 120 mph. A year later, the Soviet Union canceled all further orders.
Yakovlev Yak-38
The Harrier supersonic jet is a military feat of the invention that hit the blueprints of American and European aircraft manufacturers in the 1950s, shortly after the Korean War. The goal to produce a jet fighter that could navigate as precisely as a helicopter using jet boosters for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) was achieved by 1969. Harriers were first used in combat during the Vietnam War.
The Russian version of the Harrier took its first VTOL flight in 1971. The supersonic jet could graze a Mach 1 speed, but the Soviet version proved impractical for military purposes. Its voracious jets consumed so much fuel that the Yak-38 was limited to a 200-mile range. It had no radar, making the aircraft a weak defense fighter. Hardly armed, its air-to-air defense was limited to small missiles with a range of only 5 miles and a couple of cannon pods. The Yak-38 went out of production by 1991.