Military aviation has always been a laboratory for innovation, sometimes inspiring, sometimes confounding. Throughout the years, designers and engineers have stretched the limits of flight, creating contraptions that boggle the mind, challenge convention, and in some cases, even defy gravity. Wartime necessity, Cold War rivalry, or mere imagination may have given birth to these planes, but they serve one truth: the skies have hosted some odd marvels.
10. Northrop XP-79 — The Flying Ram
Most planes are constructed to prevent mid-air crashes. The XP-79? It was designed for them. Unveiled in 1945, this wedge-like, jet-powered curiosity was designed to crash into enemy bombers out of the sky with reinforced wings. The pilot was prone inside to be able to deal with the crushing G-forces involved during a collision. Sadly, the sole prototype crashed on its first flight, killing test pilot Harry Crosby. The project went no further, but few ideas have ever been so bold—or strange.
9. McDonnell XF-85 Goblin — The Bomber’s Pocket Defender
More toy than war weapon, the XF-85 Goblin was a “parasite fighter” intended to travel inside a B-36 bomber and be launched mid-flight to repel attackers. Stubby and egg-shaped, its design made it a flight wonder, and though the concept was innovative, the application was less so. Getting the minute fighter back into its mothership in mid-air was a nightmarishly complicated process. By a few tests, the Goblin was relegated to hangar duty forever.
8. Vought V-173 — The Flying Pancake
Yes, this one truly deserved its breakfast-food moniker. The Vought V-173 was a revolutionary WWII-era plane with a pancake-flat, disk-shaped wing aimed at achieving as much lift as possible at low speed. Strangely enough, it handled quite well, but wasn’t speedy enough to be useful as a fighter. While it didn’t become operational, the design paved the way for the even more bizarre XF5U and serves as an ode to bold aerodynamic experimentation.
7. Bartini Beriev VVA-14 — The Soviet Sea Monster
Right out of a Cold War sci-fi movie, the VVA-14 was a Soviet seaplane designed in the 1970s to catch enemy submarines. It had both amphibious takeoff and “ground effect” flight style—flying just inches above the water. Its bulbous shape and odd engine layout made it one of the weirdest-looking aircraft ever to come off an assembly line. Despite over 100 test flights, it never met expectations, especially after its creator’s death brought the project to a quiet end.
6. Hiller XH-17 — The Mega-Chopper
The XH-17 wasn’t just a helicopter—it was a flying Frankenstein’s monster. Created in the early 1950s, it featured the largest rotor blades ever used on a helicopter (a 130-foot span!) and was cobbled together from repurposed bomber parts. Designed for heavy lifting, it could, in theory, haul up to 50,000 pounds.
But its tip-jet rotors were outrageously noisy—audible from eight miles away—and the tech just wasn’t practical. It flew, but only barely.
5. Convair XFY-1 Pogo — The Vertical Daredevil
Intended to take off vertically and operate like an ordinary fighter, the Convair Pogo was a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plane intended for use by naval forces. Pilots had to take off and land while keeping the aircraft upright on its tail—a horrifying thought.
While it could switch from vertical to horizontal flight, landing the Pogo was so tricky that the project was soon abandoned. A nifty concept with sadistic execution.
4. Horten Ho 229 — The Nazi Stealth Jet
Germany’s Horten Ho 229 looked like it came from the future. Developed during World War II, it featured a sleek flying wing design that reduced drag and gave it an unusually low radar signature for its time. Though fewer than a dozen were ever constructed, the Ho 229 was decades ahead of its time, and some argue it provided the conceptual foundation for stealth aircraft today. It’s one of history’s few instances where the strange was also utterly visionary.
3. Convair F2Y Sea Dart — Supersonic on Water
What does it do when you take a fighter plane and stuff it in a speedboat? It produces the Sea Dart, an experimental U.S. Navy aircraft that launched from sea on retractable hydro-skis. It could reach supersonic speeds, but that potential was counterbalanced by extreme instability and the lethal crash of its test trials. The idea—an ocean-borne interceptor—was abandoned, but the Sea Dart is one of the most unusual planes ever to have flown.
2. Northrop Tacit Blue — The Alien School Bus
The Tacit Blue, or “The Whale” or “Alien School Bus,” was the first actual stealth surveillance aircraft. Its shape, only an engineer could adore—blocky, rounded, and awkward to a fault—was meant to be radar-invisible, not to dazzle the eye.
Employed in the 1980s as a stealth demonstrator, Tacit Blue assisted in developing key tech for the B-2 Spirit and demonstrated that form need not always trump function.
1. Vought XF5U — The Last Flapjack
Number one on the list is the Vought XF5U, more commonly referred to as the “Flying Flapjack.” It took the odd concepts of the V-173 and stretched them even further. Propellers were placed at the end of wings on a flat, saucer-shaped chassis, with unmatched agility and short takeoff promised. But the nagging vibration problems and the onset of the jet age spelled doom for the design. It was built so strongly that a wrecking ball was needed to dismantle the prototypes. A peculiar fate for a peculiar bird.
From pancake planes and ram-fighters to stealthy whales and supersonic sea jets, these planes demonstrate that military innovation isn’t always glossy and streamlined—sometimes, it’s just plain bizarre. But what’s behind every bizarre shape is a tale of ambition, imagination, and a willingness to attempt the impossible.