French "Beetle" experimental aircraft of the 1950s

Images Beetle-C450-Flash

Introduced in the mid-1950s, the Coléoptère (French for "beetle") was one of many experimental aircrafts in history designed to take off and land vertically. According to Smithsonian Air & Space, the Coléoptère designer Helmut von Zborowski's idea was for "an annular, or doughnut-shaped, wing surrounding a fuselage and serving 'as power plant, airframe of a flying wing aircraft and drag-reducing housing. By injecting fuel into the gap between wing and fuselage, Zborowski theorized, he could turn his wing into a ramjet engine, and his aircraft into a supersonic interceptor." Apparently, it managed to take off and hover for a bit but horizontal flight proved to be quite a challenge. Still, it was quite an attention-grabber, even making it into Tintin magazine.

With a full annular wing, an enclosed cockpit, and a seat that tilted forward to allow the pilot a nearly upright position during hover, the Coléoptère soon attained celebrity status. Catherinettes—French bachelorettes who annually advertised their single status by wearing eccentric hats—donned papier-mâché Coléoptères…
The Coléoptère briefly and unexpectedly achieved horizontal flight only on its ninth and last foray, when the aircraft yawed during a powered descent that degenerated into wild oscillations—including a brief horizontal acceleration– preventing (test pilot Auguste) Morel’s ejection until just 160 feet above the ground. The aircraft burned, and Morel was badly injured.

"Cancelled: Vertical Flyer"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

bcsizemo

He did realize ramjets actually have to get up to speed to function properly right?
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  I am sure he did. Isn’t that the idea for this aircraft? The ducted fan pushes it to altitude and the ramjet ignites, probably in a dive. I have seen pictures of a similar US navy aircraft. This one had counter rotating puller props. It landed on its tail and it worked.
GTMoogle

Even helicopters can land safely without power… This thing? Noooo thank you.
Ramone

Dark Roasted Blend did a nice round-up of “tail-sitter” craft a few years ago and the coleoptere is among them:
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/06/history-of-tailsitters.html
mtdna

Vive la technologie Français!
Ipo

This French guy’s motorcycle broke in the desert, so he made this airplane out of it …
Ashen Victor

“Still, it was quite an attention-grabber, even making it into the comic Tintin.”

Not the comic Tintin, but the magazine.
Tintin was drawn by Hergè while Tintin Magazine was the result of several authors, including Uderzo, Will Eisner, Edgar Pierre Jacobs or Vandersteen.
- David Pescovitz
  
  Ah, thanks!
airshowfan

The Coleoptere was only one of many tail-sitter designs… And tail-sitters were only one of many configurations explored in the history of VTOL research. It’s a very interesting history, full of creative designs. For a six-minute overview of the field (a Pecha-Kucha talk), I would recommend
http://vimeo.com/20424855
http://www.facebook.com/people/Katrina-van-Malksvig/100000571611598 Katrina van Malksvig

interesting bit of trivia, Zborowski was part of Werner von Braun ‘s rocket team during WW2 and allegedly also involved in the “Nazi flying saucer” project
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Looks like something from a Gerry Anderson production.
hakuin

so would fly-by-wire have made it work?
Susan Carley Oliver

I think it’s beautiful, reminiscent of both Firefly’s “Serenity” and the Dyson bladeless fan.

I don’t get why there’s all this French machine hate; for the longest time they were the only folks outside of the US to have a space service capable of boosting objects into orbit, and don’t forget – the Paris Air Show has historically been one of the most prestigious aircraft events.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I think it’s beautiful, reminiscent of both Firefly’s “Serenity” and the Dyson bladeless fan.
  
  Or perhaps a hair dryer.
  - cdh1971
    
    Vacuum-cleaners originally were dual purpose – when the current was reversed they were used as blow dryers – blowing the hair dry without heat.
    
    Much like the brute-force blow dryers that use no heat, only hurricane-speed winds – used at many self-serve dog grooming joints.
    
    The French plane covered in this posting would make an excellent blow dryer for a Clifford type dog or perhaps Babar’s woolly throw-back cousins.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      “In 1965 Frigidaire introduced the “ride-aire” refrigerator that you hooked up to the blower port on your vacuum cleaner to make it easier to move.”
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  I don’t get why there’s all this French machine hate
  
  Even French engineers do it. One such engineer introduced a bunch of us to their new application and said here is our new app, and because we are French, it is very complicated.
http://twitter.com/petitepoubelle petite poubelle

I’m a big fan of wacky and experimental aircraft, so I’m always stoked to see something I’m unfamiliar with.

My favorite itty bitty wacky plane has to be the XF-85 Goblin. It was designed as a “parasite fighter” that was attached to the underside of B-29s and B-36s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XF-85_Goblin

http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/content/176691.jpg
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/RKKPBJMHI22ZE7BO2BHOFA3TMM Volker

Sure not the best aircraft, but truly a fancy and futuristic design
http://www.geekman.ca GeekMan

Funny: in the insect world, beetles are notoriously terrible flyers.
- Culturedropout
  
  Apparently not just in the insect world. “Briefly and unexpectedly” are not typically good things where high-performance aircraft are concerned. But it was actually canceled because they knew all the other aviators would laugh at them.
http://twitter.com/petitepoubelle petite poubelle

Another bizarre aircraft of note was the Blohm & Voss BV 141. Built for reconnaissance, its asymmetrical design was intended to give pilots a nearly panoramic view. Apparently it performed quite well, but was shitcanned by the Luftwaffe for aesthetic reasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA5giaFPLQs&feature=related
- http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios
  
  Very cool. I seem to recall an american plane from that era that had 2 cockpits set up in a similar arrangement to that plane, with side by side cockpits in seperate nacelles….. Any idea what that was?
  - Scuba SM
    
    I believe you’re thinking of the F-82, which was essentially two P-51s attached at the wing and horizontal tail.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-82
http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Warren

Fascinating thing, this – though the plural of aircraft is aircraft, not aircrafts.
Gimlet_eye

The huge problem with tailsitters is landing: the pilot has to transition from horizontal flight to vertical hovering, then, while facing up and on his back, look over his shoulder as he decreases power to land. That’s the sort of thing that makes even top test pilots sweat.
jimh

I really like how it gained public notoriety and captured the imaginations of so many while essentially being a non-starter. Form over function!