9 Military Aircraft That Went Off The Radar

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9 Military Aircraft That Went Off The Radar


Posted by David Moore

Necessity is the mother of invention. You might ask yourself, however, if some of these aircraft ever were necessary. Here are 9 military aircraft — some weird and not-so weird — that just didn’t make the cut.


Air Force Project 1794

Perhaps UFOs do exist and the U.S. government did recover a flying saucer in Roswell, N.M. While the government was denying the incident in the ’50s, the Air Force in 1956 hired a Canadian company to design and build a circular aircraft — known as the Avrocar — that could reach Mach 4 and attain an altitude of 100,000 feet with a range of 1,000 miles. The project did not do well at all and $3.17 million later — about $27 million in today’s currency — the craft was scrapped in 1961.
Project 1794, effectively a flying saucer, could have had great implications for the US Air Force.

Boeing X-32

In 1996, Boeing and Lockheed Martin began a head-to-head competition — the Battle of the X-Planes — for a $250 billion contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter. The aircraft had to be stealthy, fly super sonic and have vertical takeoff capabilities. First flights occurred in 2000 and the winner was announced on Oct. 26, 2001. Rumors circulated that the X-32 had one characteristic that sabotaged its chances — it was ugly. The official reason why it lost — it simply had a variety of problems the X-35 did not have.
The Boeing X-32 had a host of problems that prevented it from catching on.

Northrop XB-35

This piston-engine driven bomber was the first flying-wing aircraft to be designed. The Army Air Forces awarded the initial contract in 1941, but data was still lacking on the effectiveness of the flying-wing. So, Northrup built smaller flying wing planes — the N-9M — hoping to collect flight data that would help speed up the development of the XB-35. Eventually, the program was scuttled because it was behind schedule and piston engines were flying off into obsolescence. The program did, however, lead to the

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and the B-2 Spirit.
The changing field of aviation away from piston engines made the Northrup XB-35 obsolete quickly.

Northrop XP-79

In 1943, the Army Air Forces contracted Northrop to build three flying-wing fighter prototypes. The Flying Ram featured a few novel design concepts, the pilot operating the aircraft from the prone position so he could withstand greater g-forces being one of them. The project was cancelled in 1945 shortly after one of the test planes rolled into a dive that could not be recovered. The pilot was killed attempting to bail out of the aircraft.
A pilot was killed during an early test flight of the Northrup XP-79.

Convair XFY Pogo

Before the Harrier, there was the Pogo. It was an experiment, beginning in 1951, in vertical takeoff and landing and was intended as high-performance fighter that could be placed on non-aircraft carrier ships. The aircraft would rest on the trailing edges of its wings and take off vertically. The pilot would switch to horizontal flight, perform his mission and then land again vertically. The challenge was that the pilot had to look over his shoulders as he landed. Even if all of the technical obstacles were overcome, the aircraft proved too hard to fly for the average pilot. The program ended in 1955.
The “Pogo” was far too difficult to fly for the average pilot.

Hafner Rotabuggy

About 10 years before the Pogo, during World War II, the British were trying to design a vertical takeoff and landing craft that could also supplement their airborne forces. They came up with a jeep/ Rotor_kite combination nicknamed the Rotabuggy. The idea was that airplanes would tow the vehicles into the drop zone and release them. Testing proved to be near disastrous at times, but the Rotabuggy was able to be sustained at a speed of 65 mph at an altitude of 400 feet. Gliders were then introduced and they turned out to be more reliable, so the Rotabuggy never saw active serve.
While testing was successful for the Rotobuggy, it was impractical and never caught on.

RAH-66 Comanche

In the 1980s, the Army wanted to build a reconnaissance and attack helicopter to replace older rotor aircraft and compliment their fleet of AH-64 Apaches. So the Light Helicopter Experimental Program was born. The Comanche, developed by Boeing and Sikorsky, sported stealth technologies and advanced sensors for its reconnaissance role. The Comanche was to designate targets for the Apache, and it also was armed with missiles and rockets to destroy armored vehicles. The Army determined that the design wasn’t sufficient for the current anti-aircraft threats and that funds would be better used to upgrade the existing fleet of aircraft. The program ended in 2004.
The Comanche was conceived in the 1980s, but the project was finally snuffed out in 2004.

Vought XF5U

The “Flying Flapjack” — so called because its flat, disc shaped body — was an experimental Navy fighter developed during World War II. The configuration was designed to create an high speed aircraft with low takeoff and landing speeds. It looked promising at first, but by the end of the war the Navy switched its focus to jet propulsion. The only XF5U constructed never achieved proper a flight — it achieved short hops instead — because of vibration problems. By 1946, the Flapjack was way behind schedule and way over budget, and the project was finally cancelled in March 1947.
One of the oddest-looking war planes ever, the “Flying Flapjack” never achieved a proper flight.

HZ-1 Aerocycle

If you thought the Avrocar was a bit of a stretch, take a look at the Aerocycle. In the mid-50s the Army was looking for creative ways to help troops get across the battlefield quickly with no obstacles. This one-man personal helicopter was expected to become the standard reconnaissance vehicle for the Army and it also promised mobility on the atomic battlefield. The idea was that an untrained infantry soldier could learn the controls in 20 minutes and be on his way. In fact it was too difficult to fly, and after two crashes the Army halted the program.
While a smart idea on paper, the Avrocar proved too difficult for the average soldier to fly.


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