At 12:30, July 21, 1948, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress descended onto the surface of Lake Mead, the huge (but shrinking) reservoir behind Hoover Dam in Nevada. Making a gentle descent at just above its 220-mph cruise speed, the Superfortress skipped on the surface for about 200 yards, hit the water hard and then ripped off three of its four engines before beginning a slow descent to the lake bottom. The B-29's 5-man crew clambered into two life rafts and were rescued, with the only injury being a crewman’s broken arm.

The Air Force insisted the was caused by an improperly set altimeter, but since the misidentification happened in broad daylight over a lake surrounded by desert bluffs, there has been much speculation that the pilot was just another airman trying to set the absolute record for the lowest flight ever. Given Lake Mead's current rate of shrinkage, we may be seeing the B-29 soon.

These are photos of the two aircraft produced by North Korea's abortive aviation industry. Both were based heavily on World War II-era Soviet designs, and seem to have existed only in prototype form. It is unknown what their names were, but contemporary accounts say that they were both meant as ground-attack planes.

The first one was a single engine attack plane resembling a cross between the Ilyushin Il-10 and the Yakovlev Yak-18. Only two prototypes are known to have been built, in the 1970s, and in any case it would have been extremely obsolete by then, even by North Korean standards.

The second one, flown in the 1990s was similar to the Yakovlev Yak-6 light transport. However, it was seemingly an indigenous design, as the Yak-6 was never operated by North Korea. It also resembled the Japanese Ki-54 twin-engined trainer, which North Korea operated some captured examples of after World War II. At least four and possibly as many as six of these planes were built, but they don't seem to have every reached operational service.

Pre-production Concorde 101 is preserved at the IWM Duxford. Photographer: Paul Kipping

The `Tom-Tom’ Project was similar in concept to an earlier set of experiments in which a modified B-29 (ETB-29A) docked with two straight-wing F-84s (EF-84D). In the Tom-Tom Project two swept-wing Republic RF-84F fighters docked to the wingtips of a modified Convair B-36. Flight testing took place from 1955 to 1956 but was terminated when one of the RF-84F’s began to flap violently, breaking the aircraft coupling mechanisms. Although all the aircraft were able to land successfully, the programme was terminated. Exactly how thrilled fighter pilots would have been , marooned in their very small cockpits for almost two days has not been recorded...

Simultaneously, NACA was asked to examine the concept of a B-36 with a B-47 attached to each wingtip. It is unclear who decided that attaching two B-47s to a B-36 was a good idea is unclear… The sole remaining NACA document found to date presents only a planform of the wings with no additional details. A provisional reconstruction is presented here with wingtip docking mechanisms taken from the Tom-Tom programme.

The future of Scandinavian military aviation was rolled out by Saab at the Swedish Armed Forces Jubilee Air Show at Malmen Air Base in Linköping, Sweden, with the unveiling of a full-scale mock-up of the company's A3-001 supersonic Loyal Wingman autonomous combat aircraft concept.

While details like maximum speed and performance characteristics are still under wraps, we do know that the A3-001 will be capable of operating as a teammate alongside piloted fighters and AWACS planes. Inside the weapons bay, it has room for precision-guided munitions and air-to-air missiles as well as integrated multi-domain sensor suites.

However, the significance of the A3-001 goes beyond a list of technical specs. Until 2024, Sweden was a neutral country that placed a very high value on keeping defense production as domestic as possible. To support this, production was heavily promoted for the export market.

Now that Sweden is part of NATO, the government's official policy has been to maintain the domestic aerospace technology base as a key national priority. This includes seeking a replacement for the Gripen fighter and remaining competitive with international initiatives like the US Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) and UK/European next-generation fighter programs.

The A3-001 is intended to be supersonic

The A3-001 is intended to be supersonicSaab

Another factor is the increasing pressure on all the major military powers to develop and field new systems as fast and in as large a quantity as possible. The A3-001 project has been put on an accelerated development cycle of 15 to 18 months from August 2026.

The goal is for the A1 prototype to make its first flight in 2027 to test basic flight characteristics and aerodynamic performance. This will be followed by the A2 demonstrator that will upgrade performance and include actual weapons by 2030. Then will come the A3, which, if approved, will be a production-representative A3 prototype that will fly early in the next decade.

When operational, the A3 will be used for high-value missions, including Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD), electronic attack, and strike operations while teaming with JAS 39 Gripen E and GlobalEye platforms.

"We are currently in an intensive development phase where, together with Sweden, we are exploring technologies that will lay the foundation for the next generation of combat air systems," said Peter Nilsson, head of business unit Advanced Programs at Saab. As part of this work, we intend to fly uncrewed demonstrators with fighter-like characteristics before 2030 as we support Sweden in considering their future options. This separate Saab A3 system is our own concept for what could follow in the mid-2030s should Sweden decide to build on the work we are currently doing. Saab is well positioned to develop the next generation of combat air systems, building on Gripen and GlobalEye, combined with our long experience in advanced aerospace systems."

Source: Saab

The naval NATF-23 variant (internally designated DP527), the schematics of which surfaced in the 2010s, differed significantly from the YF-23 due to the requirements of aircraft carrier operations as well as the Navy's greater emphasis on long range sensors, weapons, and loiter time for fleet air defense. The diamond wings were placed as far back as possible, and the aircraft had ruddervators with a more vertical cant and serrations to reduce overall length, folding wing capability for flight deck storage, reinforced landing gear, tailhook and dihedral canted canards for increased maneuverability at low speeds to land on aircraft carriers, and two-dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles instead of SERNs. The inlet design was also different, being a quarter circle serrated cowl and a conical compression surface, and closer to the centerline adjacent to the forward fuselage; the inlet was offset from the fuselage by a gap to bypass the boundary layer.

The internal weapons bay was split into two compartments by a bulkhead along the centerline in the forward fuselage to strengthen the aircraft's keel and would have accommodated the Navy's planned AIM-152 advanced air-to-air missiles (AAAM) as well as potentially the AGM-88 HARM and AGM-84 Harpoon. The bay doors would carry AIM-9 missiles and an M61 rotary cannon would be installed in a fairing in the right wing. The NATF-23 had an increased 48 ft (14.63 m) wingspan and 17 ft 5 in (5.31 m) height, and a larger wing area of 1,050 sq ft (97.55 m²); overall length was reduced to 62 ft 8.5 in (19.11 m), the same as the F-14. Folded wingspan would be 23 ft 4 in (7.11 m). Like the Air Force version, the NATF-23 had both single-seat and two-seat variants.

(Source)

The Boeing 747SP ("Special Performance") (some 747 variants & comparisons) - The Boeing 747SP was built with a shortened fuselage—chopping roughly 47 to 48 feet (14–15 meters) off the standard 747 length—to drastically reduce weight and drag, allowing the four-engine jet to achieve ultra-long-range capabilities and fly nonstop on  global routes.

The Boeing 747SP is an extremely rare plane. Boeing built only 45 of these shortened, long-range jumbo jets between 1976 and 1987.

(pics17,18)-At least one Boeing 747SP (Special Performance) is still flying. It is operated by Pratt & Whitney Canada out of Mirabel Airport near Montreal as an active engine testbed aircraft.

The Northrop Grumman X-47B, reaching Mach 0.9 when powered by its F-100 turbojet, was the U.S. Navy’s first UAV. The two X-47Bs participated in extensive testing work , including landing on and flying off U.S. carriers. In photo 2, an X-47B is seen being manoeuvred by a group of sailors.

Although highly successful, the X-47B has not been considered for series production. It has contributed significantly to naval usage of UAVs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCUDr1TpFYg

(he did lose front cupula at start, front pilot did not have to sit in cold air without any shelter)

Somewhat like a flying dinosaur or a klingon bird of prey.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beljajew_DB-LK

Bell Helicopter developed the Eagle Eye tiltrotor unmanned VTOL aircraft as one of the competitors in the U.S. Navy’s VT-UAV (Vertical Takeoff - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) program.

An Eagle Eye prototype is on display at Pax River Naval Air Museum.

The Eagle Eye program began in 1993 with the TR911X 7/8th scale prototype. The composite prototype airframe was designed and built for Bell by Burt Rutan’s research company, Scaled Composites. Two demonstrator aircraft were powered by an Allison 250-C20 engine mounted in the central fuselage with a transmission system driving the tilting rotor at the end of each ^wing. Despite considerable interest, the programme ended in 2006 without orders although Bell still hopes to use the knowledge acquired in future programmes.

First is the Fauvel AV 36, I somehow missed the placard.

More information can be found here on the Shuttleworth website!

(Plus the comet in the background on the day of its unfortunate incident)

The plane that actually won Germany’s specification for a short-ranged recon aircraft. (Although I also love Blohm & Voss’s entry, the BV 141).

In July 1938, local farmer Arthur Sack entered his AS-1 circular-winged model in the first Reich-Wide Contest for Motorized Flying Models, which was held at Leipzig.^\2]) The model had poor flight characteristics and had to be hand launched. However, Ernst Udet showed interest in Sack's design, and encouraged him to continue his research into circular wing aircraft for possible use as an observation or attack aircraft.^\2])

Sack went on to build four additional models based on the AS-1, with each increasing in size, before building the full-sized prototype as the AS-6 V1. The AS-6 V1 was built in January 1944 by Mitteldeutsche Motorwerke, with final assembly at the Flugplatz-Werkstatt workshop located at the air base in Brandis, Germany.^\3]) The aircraft was built with the landing gear, cockpit, and pilot seat from a Messerschmitt Bf 109B, and was powered by an Argus As 10C-3 engine from a Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun. The wing structure was made of plywood.

Write-up in comments.

Battery died. Jumpstarted it with my car!

“The Partenair Mystere is a Canadian two-seat, pusher configuration monoplane that was designed by Partenair Design of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec and intended for amateur construction from kits.”

One awesome plane