Mystery aircraft photo

Goodyear rubber plane

On the U.S. Discovery Wings cable network, they had a “Wings” episode about “weird” planes, and had lots of film on it. They showed inflating, rigging, flying.. Even a few shots of a two-seater model…
Fun video to watch.

IIRC circa 1950’s, was actually in the Eagle Book of Aircraft at one time

Goodyear Inflatoplane

Remember Mark I told you Goodyear Inflatoplane, for land use.
Mike

Thanks Mike.

I had to take in rather a lot that week

Info pack from the Smithsonian:-

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/goodyear_xao.htm

Mark

air-plane

Remember Mark I told you Goodyear Inflatoplane, for land use.
Mike

Great stuff. I can just imagine it when visitors quietly perusing the displays when they suddenly hear a hissing sound and the plane starts to flex its muscles. 🙂 It must cause a few funny moments.

I have an idea – if it were for water use and you were in one of the multiple types that carried a Gibson Girl set, you could use the hydrogen generator to inflate it, and give it a bit more lift. 😀

That sagging feeling

What an awesome idea. Was it intended for pilots crashed in water? Like a liferaft-flying boat. Or was it simply for use on land?

Do you have any idea what era this is from? Was it used during the war?

DaveH,

I have no idea but it just might be amphibious.

My inclination is that it is Vietnam war era.

One of the reasons for posting was to find out a bit more about it.

With good reason nobody at ‘Crystal Lakes’ has been brave enough to fly it.

The craft tends to sag through minor leaking in the suspended display attitude. To control this a ‘sagometer’ has been fitted so that when a wing droops to a certain position it triggers a micro-switch and the craft is automatically re-inflated.

Mark

What an awesome idea. Was it intended for pilots crashed in water? Like a liferaft-flying boat. Or was it simply for use on land?

Do you have any idea what era this is from? Was it used during the war?

Pilot recovery vehicle.

Three minutes! 🙂

Well it was new to me any way.

Yes it is a U.S. fully inflatable pilot recovery vehicle. It all folds up into a package the size of about two tea chests. It is dropped to the downed pilot who unpacks it, inflates it, presumably with an engine driven pump, and flies off.

I guess if you’re the navigator – tough.

Rather them than me.

Mark

Ahhhh, I did wonder why the wing sagged a bit (reminded me of an R/C model wing I once built! :D)

It’s the US inflatable getaway a/c. Name escapes me, but the British equivalent was held at Middle Wallop…

Motor-glider, obviously. It looks vaguely familiar…