From pioneering failures to multimillion dollar disasters. Features 150 of the worst aircraft ever to leave the drawing board, from the Seddon Mayfly, which didn't fly, to a flying tank which surprisingly did. Includes a brief history of each aircraft design, explaining why the idea didn't take off. Each type is illustrated with annotated photography and artwork, highlighting key faults and unusual design features.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Introduction to Aerial Edsels!,
By
This review is from: The World's Worst Aircraft (From Pioneering Failures to Multimillion Dollar Disasters) (Hardcover)
The history of aviation is littered with dozens of aircraft that were badly designed, poorly manufactured or created to meet outdated or unrealistic mission requirements. Jim Winchester's book takes a sweeping look at these aerial disasters in this nicely illustrated, inexpensively priced volume.
In paging through the 300-odd pages of this book, it's obvious that every nation has had its share of aerial duds, witness the Italian Caproni 'Noviplano,' the French 'Jabiru,' the English Pemberton-Billing 'Nighthawk,' the German Fokker V8 or the American Curtiss XP-62. It's incredible viewing page after page of dead-end designs that make one wonder 'did they really pay someone to design that thing?!' To be honest, some of the aircraft in this book do not deserve the "worst of" designation. In some cases, they arrived too late on the aviation scene to be successful, were successful designs brought down by powerplant problems or were built as one-off research designs, etc. Nevertheless, it's great fun to peruse this book and marvel at the incredibly bad designs churned out over the years. Each aircraft is illustrated by two photographs or profiles, many of which are in color. In short, it's not only an incredibly great buy ($5.99) but a marvelous introduction to 'dead-end' aircraft.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Guide to Bad Aircraft,
By Daniel L. Berek (Flanders, NJ, United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The World's Worst Aircraft (From Pioneering Failures to Multimillion Dollar Disasters) (Hardcover)
Funny thing is I own two books with the same title, "The World's Worst Aircraft." I honestly cannot say which of the two, this one by Jim Winchester and the other, by Bill Yenne, is the better. Both are written by authors I respect; I own other volumes by both gentlemen. Both books are good reads, injecting a bit of humor into the subject matter, as with some of these aerial oddballs one can only laugh. Winchester's book covers a greater number of aircraft from a greater number of countries; Yenne's book, on the other hand, covers his Hall of Shame aviation duds with greater depth. If you really like airplanes and have an interest in aviation history, do what I did - purchase both books.
In this volume, Winchester divides his aeronautical oddities into the following categories: Behind the Times, designs that were worthwhile but came too early or too late to enjoy commercial success; Bogus Concepts, designs that belie the question "What were they thinking?"; Power Problems, aircraft that may have had a chance were it not for their problematic powerplants; Construction Disasters, concepts whose problems lay in the material or manner of construction; and Unintentionally Unstable, aircraft that had the handling of a sport utility vehicle with a flat tire. Here you will encounter flying tanks, bedsteads, and jeeps; planes with barely enough room for the pilot and craft with wingspans larger than that of a Boeing 747; planes with one engine, ten engines, and more; planes with two wings and no fuselage, four wings, flapping wings (not one but two!), and 20 wings; one design that would have been cheaper to build using solid gold and one made of inflatable rubber. Many readers with knowledge of aircraft are sure to have their ideas as to other aircraft that should have been included in this book. My nominations are these: the various US designs for roadable aircraft, including one that featured the worst of both words, that is, a Ford Pinto mated to the aft fuselage of a Cessna Skymaster; the Shanghai Y-10, a Chinese version of the Boeing 707 or 720 that first flew more than a quarter century after Dash 80 first took to the air; and the Antonov An-10 Ukraine (not to be confused with the Antonov An-8 and An-12, both of which were very fine aircraft), which has the dishonorable distinction of having lost about half the total production run to its poor handling, often with lethal consequences. For the price, this is a fun and enjoyable book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Poorly Researched book,
This review is from: The World's Worst Aircraft (Hardcover)
The title caught my eye and I picked this book up for a few dollars from my local book store. Some of the entries are good candidates, but other's I believe were picked as they needed more pages.The Boulton Paul Defiant failed as a front line fighter, but excelled as a night fighter. Does this make is worthy of a "World's Worst"? The Gloster Meteor (Prone Pilot) was nothing more than an R&D to see if a pilot flying prone would be practice, exactly how else this could be tested I'm not sure. There are others included which hardly should be considered failures: Howard Hugh's Spruce Goose, B-32 (to the author, the only reason they were scrapped was due to the war ending), ANT-20, Brewster Buffalo (Fins might argue that one), Me 321/323 Gigant (most transports don't do very well when you don't control the air) Fw 200: In 7 months sank 365k tons of shipping ..and the list goes on. If you receive this as a gift, it's safe to assume they don't like you.
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