Completely, utterly, stupidly, totally, undeniably and beyond any doubt, crazy

Guess what this is…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]227380[/ATTACH]

(Found it whilst looking for something else!)

If you said a flying machine…get yourself a beer!

NORTH LONDON “FLYING HOUSE” multiplane (built at Alexandra Palace, Hornsey, London N)

It is difficult to believe that the Flying House here illustrated was seriously expected to fly and might just have been a fantasy in the mind of an eccentric inventor. However, the Illustrated London News of 10 November 1906 reported that it was built by a party of Frenchmen in the grounds of the Alexandra Palace (perhaps with the assistance of Auguste Gaudron, the balloon-maker, whose workshop was nearby). The machine had eight aluminium wings, each fifty-four feet long, and four propellers. The proposed powerplant is not known. The multiplane was designed to carry 100 passengers in some comfort. Needless to say there are no reports of it having flown and it was probably never completed.
This is almost certainly the flying machine described by “A.D.” of the Alexandra Park Aviation Works, 77 Duke’s Avenue, Muswell Hill, London N in his letter of 10 January 1905 to Patrick Alexander in which he offered to sell him patent rights to enable the construction to be finished. “A.D.” stated that the machine was half-built and all the pieces of the mechanism were at hand. ?2000 was required to complete the project.
The machine was 65ft long, 13ft wide and 19ft 6in high. It had eight wings, each 48ft 9in long and of 6ft 6in chord. The total wing span was 104ft. The engine was of about 100hp and drove four propellers. It was designed to carry 200 people at 60mph.
Whilst Patrick Alexander was very generous with his support of aeronautical projects, it would seem that on this occasion he decided that the project was without any merit. Nothing further was heard of the Flying House.

M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
(http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft29649.htm )

Maybe this should be over on Historic, but I really don’t fancy setting something off over there.