Was this the weirdest?

I’ve been sitting here wondering – as one does when there’s nothing on the television worth watching – what was the weirdest aeronautical entity to have aspired to an entry on the British civil register. At present, I find myself thinking that the Camco Mk. IIA V-Liner must, at least, make it to the top ten.

As many will know (!), the construction of this behemoth never was completed. It was damaged in the fire at Slingsby’s Kirbymoorside works in 1968 and then scrapped. But had the scaffolder’s dream been completed, what a sight it would have been.

I’m not aware of any photographs of the V-Liner, but the artist’s impression which featured in ‘Air Pictorial’ (reproduced in A.J.Jackson’s ‘British Civil Aircraft’) gives a taste of the weird and the wonderful. To quote the text:

“…..had it been completed [the Camco Mk. IIA V-Liner] would have weighed over four tons and incorporated 2,000 ft. of aluminium tubing, 40 miles of wiring and 3,500 electric bulbs”

It was intended as an airborne advertisement hoarding. American by design, the tandem wing amphibious aircraft comprised mainly a tubular structure which bridged the gap between the forward element – a 69 feet span monoplane wing, over which would have been mounted on pylons two 750 hp Rolls-Royce Continental engines, with a flying boat hull and wing tip floats – and the aft element – another monoplane wing, apparently of similar dimensions to that forward, with another flying boat hull, wing tip floats and a fin and rudder, immediately forward of which would have been a 100 hp engine to provide electrical power for the illuminated flashing signs on the central advertising hoarding. P1 was located in the forward fuselage with P2/avionics station in the aft fuselage.

In addition to its 69 feet span, this sea monster would have been 378 feet in length and had all all up weight of 9,000 lbs. Goodness knows how it would have been transported from Kirbymoorside to the place from which it would have been launched – and goodness knows how soon it would have been before it broke its back on landing (pondskater – expert opinion would be appreciated here). However had it been completed, flown and survived, I’m certain that it would have been at Legends!

But can anyone else point to something weirder that actually got onto the British civil register?