Corkscrew Plane for Vertical Flight (Mar, 1933)
Corkscrew Plane for Vertical Flight
Can an airplane be built that will fly straight up? Many odd crafts have been built in vain attempts to solve this problem, but J. P. Sellmer, of Stinson Beach, Calif., is pinning his hopes to one of even stranger design than most. His corkscrew airplane, according to him will lift itself by means of a whirling, continuous wing of spiral design. A small propeller will keep the framework from spinning. Though aviation experts offer the idea little encouragement, Sellmer is busily putting the finishing touches to a large model with which he will test his theory.
were da Vinci’s patents over by then??? =D
I’ve seen a short film of this- the plane bounces up and down but never gets off the ground.
I tried to find a vid on youtube w/o success but the search ‘early aviation’ led to a huge archive of neat stuff from the history of a Soviet Su-24 Fencer
http://www.youtube.com/…
or a completely restored Me-109
http://www.youtube.com/…
to cool NASA videos of experimental aircraft
http://www.youtube.com/…
uh-oh another time-waster…
I saw the machine that hops…. does it eventually turn over and catch fire?
It didn’t look like the one in the photograph.
I’ll check archive.org again.
The article mentioned a tail rotor.
At least he got that right.
A big propeller instead of the corkscrew might have worked.
Did he mention how he’d steer it?
Bonjour
http://www.convertible-…
Cordialement J V T