This is the first aircraft without wings in the history of aviation

Since the dawn of mankind, we have looked up at the sky and longed to fly like birds. But even the person with the least aeronautics and savvy knows that in order to fly, you need wings to give lift to a plane or anything like that to take off.

And what else would the plane need to get on? Those are long runways. The runway is, in essence, a dilemma. Because they take up a lot of land and are expensive to build and maintain. In particular, military runways are the first target in a war, because if you destroy the enemy’s airstrip, you effectively eliminate the enemy’s air force.

During the 1950s, aircraft engineers began to think out-of-the-box ideas. If planes had more power and features, they might not need to use runways anymore. Thus, a wave of experiments with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) forms of aircraft began. And if proven successful, the new designs will essentially eliminate the need for runways because they can take off from virtually anywhere.

Renowned French aircraft engine builder SNECMA (Société Nationale d’Études et Construction de Moteurs d’Aviation, now Safran Aircraft Engines), used a design by Austrian engineer Helmut von Zborowski, to begin with. built a prototype aircraft that did not use typical triangular wings. In fact, the C.450 Coléoptère (in French for “beetle”) had no wings at all.

Powered by a jet engine with an axial pump design, the Coléoptère has a circular “wing” 3.2 meters in diameter that surrounds the lower half of the aircraft. SNECMA hopes the design will turn it into a jet by compressing the incoming air, mixing it with fuel, and igniting it to take it well beyond the Mach speed standard.

During takeoff and landing, thrust is deflected using propellers located in the engine’s exhaust manifold. Four small fins strategically placed around the “wing” will act as rudders to provide directional control on the fly. The fins are retractable, hidden inside the nose, and will deploy when needed to help tilt the plane while it’s vertical into “landing” mode.

The innovatively designed swivel cockpit seat allows the pilot to remain in a locked and vertical position based on the aircraft’s axial orientation.

Since this is the time before simulations can be tested on computers, pilots must be directly involved in testing on the prototype product. And the first practical tests were started in April 1959.

Serious problems arose almost immediately. Without stabilizing wings, the aircraft spins while hovering in the vertical take-off phase. Sitting like astronauts on top of rockets, the pilots had trouble seeing the ground. Finally, because it has no wings, the vehicle theoretically wouldn’t allow it to glide to safety if its engines failed. The Coléoptère project faced the risk of failure.

On July 25, 1959, SNECMA continued to test the ability to switch from vertical to horizontal flight mode of the aircraft. But it tilted too much and the pilot could not regain control. He was forced to rush out to save his life, and Coléoptère was destroyed after the fall. The application for funding for the second prototype did not materialize and the project was eventually abandoned.

Refer to SlashGear