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Richard W. Palmer, an engineer with the Vultee Aircraft Corp., conceived this remarkably original (and equally ugly) aircraft in 1939.
Meant "for use in observation or photographic work", its fuselage was "so designed and constructed that the pilot and observer have unobstructed vision through substantially all parts or portions of it". This was to be done thanks to a "framework of geodetic or latticed design together with flexible transparent plates across the spaces between the diagonally extending members of the framework." The fuselage was "substantially elliptical in cross section" and "of greatest thickness from top to bottom, and the empennage supporting tailboom is fixed to the rear end of the fuselage at a point above the longitudinal center line of the fuselage with the result that the observer in the rear of the fuselage is able to see clearly under the empennage and may look rearwards, as well as rearwards and downwards without any appreciable obstruction."
To put it shortly, it was basically a bubble shaped- transparent airframe providing excellent vision from nearly all sides.
Application for the design alone was filed on December 6, 1939, and Design Patent #Des. 121,963 granted on August 13, 1940.
Application for the entire concept was filed on July 12, 1940, and Patent #2,314,949 granted on March 30, 1943.
Ugly though it was, it would have been interesting to see at least a prototype of this strange machine be constructed, as I have never seen anything of the sort anywhere else, and wonder if it would have worked.
The three-view arrangement and two-view arrangement below were cleaned by myself from both patent documents, which are also provided in PDF form.
Meant "for use in observation or photographic work", its fuselage was "so designed and constructed that the pilot and observer have unobstructed vision through substantially all parts or portions of it". This was to be done thanks to a "framework of geodetic or latticed design together with flexible transparent plates across the spaces between the diagonally extending members of the framework." The fuselage was "substantially elliptical in cross section" and "of greatest thickness from top to bottom, and the empennage supporting tailboom is fixed to the rear end of the fuselage at a point above the longitudinal center line of the fuselage with the result that the observer in the rear of the fuselage is able to see clearly under the empennage and may look rearwards, as well as rearwards and downwards without any appreciable obstruction."
To put it shortly, it was basically a bubble shaped- transparent airframe providing excellent vision from nearly all sides.
Application for the design alone was filed on December 6, 1939, and Design Patent #Des. 121,963 granted on August 13, 1940.
Application for the entire concept was filed on July 12, 1940, and Patent #2,314,949 granted on March 30, 1943.
Ugly though it was, it would have been interesting to see at least a prototype of this strange machine be constructed, as I have never seen anything of the sort anywhere else, and wonder if it would have worked.
The three-view arrangement and two-view arrangement below were cleaned by myself from both patent documents, which are also provided in PDF form.
