Challenge: name an airplane uglier than the Lloyd Luftkreuzer

[Driftless]

Clement Ader's Avion III of 1897. Yes it did (briefly) fly.

Ader needed a lightweight and more powerful power plant. He got a couple of his creations off the ground for short hops, but no real duration, nor did he have a real directional control method (that maybe would get attention if he could get the plane off the ground for some distance).

 

[Father Maryland]

The miracle of birth:

...and they do surrogacy:

What are these?

 

[Hammerbolt]

What are these?

C-124 Globemaster.

 

[PSL]

Not ugly though.

That ugly monster could fly at over 500mph and hover like a helicopter landing on the deck of a moving destroyer sized warship. A Destroyer with its own fighter cover! Now that's an escort.

 

[Father Maryland]

That ugly monster could fly at over 500mph and hover like a helicopter landing on the deck of a moving destroyer sized warship. A Destroyer with its own fighter cover! Now that's an escort.

And was supposedly so tough that to demolish it they needed to use a wrecking ball.

 

[NHBL]

The RAF'sA C-130K, a Hercules modified for meteorological research...

I think that naval architects from the 1860's through the Great War had some influence on this one. Prepare to ram!

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Nah, that Hercules is male and it's mating season.

 

[Kevin Renner]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-8

Supposedly it was well liked by the pilots that flew it

 

[McPherson]

Have you ever seen a pancake fly through the air?

Allow me to present the Vought V-173 prototype and the Vought XF5U fighter...

View attachment 512297

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She had severe power transfer case and PTO issues from her buried in wing mounted engines to the final drives at the propellers at the outer shaft cases. Part of that issue was the one engine out both screws still powered required build in the transfer cases which was found to cause harmonic oscillation in the shaft drives. IOW she was a flying deathtrap and impractical.

 

[WILDGEESE]

How about this?

. . . . the Transavia PL-12 made famous as Jeddiah's aircraft in the film "Mad Max 3: Beyond The Thunderdome"

 

[Kevin C. Smith]

Some of the selections in this thread are to me more unusual or bizarre looking then ugly. But of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Behold! It is ugly...

 

[Ramontxo]

She had severe power transfer case and PTO issues from her buried in wing mounted engines to the final drives at the propellers at the outer shaft cases. Part of that issue was the one engine out both screws still powered required build in the transfer cases which was found to cause harmonic oscillation in the shaft drives. IOW she was a flying deathtrap and impractical.

Would have it fly without the transfer requirement? The Canberra was apparently also quite difficult to fly on one motor but it served for years. On the other hand it wasn't a carrier plane.

 

[JennyB]

Would have it fly without the transfer requirement? The Canberra was apparently also quite difficult to fly on one motor but it served for years. On the other hand it wasn't a carrier plane.

Yes, but the Pancake is more like a Chinook lying on its side. There is no way it could fly on only one rotor.

 

[McPherson]

Would have it fly without the transfer requirement? The Canberra was apparently also quite difficult to fly on one motor but it served for years. On the other hand it wasn't a carrier plane.

It is possible that the vibration problems could have been solved (^^^).

Butt ugly apply to flying fruit, too?

 

[Dorknought]

It is possible that the vibration problems could have been solved (^^^).

Not always:

 

[McPherson]

Not always:

Mazda rx7 3 years ago
In 1980, they should have known that helicopter vibrations transmit through rigid frames. Since each helicopter has it's own unique vibration, there was no way that frame-work could deal with such vibrations. They would have been more successful with shrouded fans like on the Bell X-22 only bigger and or more of them.

Which proves that you should not trust lash-ups put together by amateurs. (^^^). One could almost predict unbalanced force vector loading at the four corners of that contraption. One unbalanced engine away from disaster. Am I correct to assume it took four pilots to fly that abomination?

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

It is possible that the vibration problems could have been solved (^^^).

Butt ugly apply to flying fruit, too?

That thing's a flying dirty joke.

 

[Mysterion]

Behold the X-85 Goblin:

 

[marathag]

Behold the X-85 Goblin:

cute and worthless, but not ugly

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Behold the X-85 Goblin:
View attachment 512809

Curtis Sparrowhawk. it's not the plane but the concept and its application that's ugly, and deadly to the crew.