Hello everyone!

If you enjoyed our latest blog titled “Get To Know The World’s Most Unusual Planes”, you’d better go through this one as well.

Today we’ve collected another group of planes that are weird-looking, oddly shaped, yet incredible. Indeed, these are eye-catching airplanes that you are sure to remember. So Let’s get started:

Northrop Tacit Blue Airplane

Unlike most commercial rounded-shape like airlines today, the Northrop Tacit Blue had a more rectangular shape, and only one of them was ever built. It was developed by the U.S. Air Force in 1982 and at the time, it was considered some of the best technology on the planet. The Air Force wanted a low observable surveillance aircraft that likely wouldn’t be intercepted by radar and, therefore, could be successful near the front lines of battle with a high likelihood that it would survive.

Several nicknames were given to The Tacit Blue, including the Alien School Bus and the Whale, and it had a gross weight of 30,000 lbs. Its maximum flying speed reached 290 MPH and it was over 50 feet long. It is currently housed at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio. 

Piaggio Aerospace

The Piaggio Aerospace P.1HH HammerHead is a state-of-the-art Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) designed for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions whose combination of performance and operational characteristics is at the very top end of the UAS MALE category. The P.1HH certainly stands out among other bizarrely-shaped UAVs. Launched at the Paris air show in 2013, Piaggio has high hopes for the medium-altitude, long-endurance type.

The P.1HH HammerHead design is fully compliant with STANAG USAR 4671 standards to fly in both restricted and unrestricted flight areas, according to the relevant authorities permission.

The Super Guppy Airplane

This plane jewel made by Aero Spacelines, and it is a big cargo plane with a large, wide body. The alien-face plane is still in operation today and is used mostly to ferry oversized cargo components. Only five of them were ever made, but the plane played a very important role during the Apollo program because it carried a complete S-IVB stage, the third section of the Saturn V rocket.

In fact, the Super Guppy is the only plane that was large enough to assist in the Apollo program, with a wingspan of more than 150 feet and a length of nearly 144 feet. Its maximum take-off weight is more than 170,000 lbs., and it can operate at close to 290 MPH.

The Horten Ho 229 Airplane

Designed with the purpose of being more difficult to detect by radar, the Horten Ho 229 plane has a flat, disc-like shape and started as a German fighter/bomber plane late in World War II.

Unfortunately, it only flew as a prototype and, therefore, never actually made it to war. However, it is an impressive plane because it can carry two 30-mm MK 108 cannons with ease.

With a wingspan of more than 55 feet, the Horten Ho 229 plane accommodates one crewperson and is more than 24 feet long. It can climb at 4,300 feet per minute and can fly at speeds of more than 600 MPH. 

The Lockheed Martin LMH-1

The Lockheed Martin LMH-1, filled mostly with helium, can carry 20 tons of cargo, but can be scaled to roughly the size of a football field with 500 tons of capacity. It can also carry up to 19 passengers over ranges up to 1,400 nm at a cruise speed of 60 kts. The Lockheed Martin’s hybrid airship offers lower cargo transport costs to remote areas that road and current air alternatives cannot match.  

The Bartini Beriev

This is the Bartini Beriev VVA-14, a bulky Soviet amphibious aircraft whose twin engines were mounted on the rear of the fuselage. As it rumbled down the runway it always looked unlikely that it would er be able to take to the air. The last aircraft was retired in 1972 and is in a museum in Russia. It was intended to be developed into a vertical take-off aircraft.

We hope you've enjoyed this blog.

Aviation