FRIDAY SURPRISE: Yet another flight of fancy

Regular readers may have noticed that I have a "thing" for flying. This is somewhat contradictory, as I simply cannot abide flying in an airliner. However, the thought of flying a personal aircraft is immensely exciting to me - and the more personal the craft, the more it intrigues me!

Back in the 1950's and 1960's, the Army experimented with personal flying machines as a way to increase troop mobility. Several different approaches were tried - some were even successful - but the Army ultimately decided that the concept itself had sufficient drawbacks to keep from being adopted.

The most recognized of the entries - and my favorite - was the VZ-1 "Pawnee":



The Pawnee, though, was only one of several designs. This article at Damn Interesting gives you all the poop on the various approaches to the Army's requests.

(Oh, and of course I want one !)

-=[ Grant ]=-