My wife suggested we go to Battleship Cove in MA yesterday. While touring the USS Massachusetts I came across the Aviation Display, and this little creation jumped out at me…
The description under the model…
Airborne G.P. Vehicle
Don’t Laugh. Don’t Mock. It Worked.
anticipating the need for vehicles to
accompany paratroopers when they
dropped behind enemy lines. This
contraption was tested successfully in
England. The advent of the Cargo Glider
elimanated the need for the part Jeep-part
autogyro.
I LMAO when I saw this and the description. Just thought I’d share.
leave it to the Brits to come up with something like this.I was watching the history channel the other day and always thought that the U.S.came up with the flayer that is used to clear mines but I was wrong it was England.Digger
Hey, I know this vehicle ; it’s a… euh a euh, what the heck is that ???
Does it have a name or a designation of some kind, would like to get some more info on for possible kitbashing [8D]
Tell you what, leave it to the Brits to come up with some “out of the box” ideas that work. Some still being used by our military today: steam catapults and angled flight decks.
The Hafner Rotabuggy Flying Jeep evidently was not fun to fly. It was pulled behind a Bentley for the first series of ‘flights’, then pulled by a Whitley bomber.
One witness described how she watched a Whitley take off with a Jeep in tow, circle and land. The Jeep, still in tow, did not touch down at the same time, and the witness realised that its occupants “were unhappy”. With the pilot holding the hanging control column and the driver clutching the steering wheel, the Jeep made a series of up and down movements, whilst the audience hoped it would stall on a ‘down’ rather than an ‘up’.
This it fortunately did, the driver taking over and driving flat-out after the Whitley, to which it remained attached. When it stopped, nobody got out for a while; the pilot was then assisted out and lay down beside the runway to recover. Apparently he was exhausted from trying to control the joystick, which had whipped in circles for the whole flight.
Apparently this flight was one of the worst, and the handling and flying qualities of the Rotabuggy were officially recorded as “highly satisfactory”, especially when large tail fins had been fitted and greater rotor blade articulation provided. However, development of Horsa II and Hamilcar vehicle carrying gliders made further development of the idea unnecessary.
Yes, and we American’s were the ones that scoffed at, and refused to use, things like the flail tank, the Mulberry harbor, and various other of the “funnies.” At least we redeamed ourselves with the hedgerow cutter tank. Wait, are we on the right site here?
Tom
Back in the '70s Air Enthusiest (sp) magazine ran an article on the subject which has always stuck in my mind because of the weirdness of the subject. As I remember it, the military types weren’t that happy with the concept but it caught Churchill’s attention and they ended up and built 8 or nine versions before it was all over. (Kind of like the USAF, Congress and the A-10 except in that case Congress won)
you betcha its weird. how about a treadhead meets wingy thingy GB. we can all build that as a scratchbuild project and compare our results ! we can model crashed versions, prototype versions, in-flight versions, and for the auto fans in the GB, we could even make shiny ones ! (im kidding)
I know I have a photo of that one in a reference book. But what I’ve never seen a photo of is the Russian tank that was meant to be glider towed (detachable wings and empanage I can see, but on something as massive as a tank?) Anybody have a photo of that one or know if it actually flew? Or if crew were meant to be aboard in flight? I know the Soviets tried LAPES ing tanks with crew aboard with bad results.
