Something really unorthodox

In aerospace industry, there are not many projects that can surprise me a lot. But this is one exception. An super mega giga ultra unorthodox aircrafts by german designer Luigi Colani. His aircrafts have something organic in their shapes. First called Cygnus was projected gigantic passanger plane for soviet airlines Aeroflot from 80s. It was designed for extreme climatic and geographic conditions. It was powered by two bolt - like ducted fans.



This is hypersonic Mach 5 passanger plane from 1983. Air intakes were placed in the wing leading edges.



Megalodon was passanger plane with shape of the shark (Carcharodon megalodon) from 1977. It had two engines, variable geometry wing and four decks, every with capacity 1000 passangers!



Last but not least - Racer C-309 was a project of record setting plane from 1968. It was created to achieve speeds 900 km/h. It was powered by two Mazda Wankel engines (each 240 kW) and special Hamilton Standard propellers.

Sorry but I have to do this. The first one looks a lot like a Klingon Bird of Prey, or D7 cruiser.

Sorry but I have to do this. The first one looks a lot like a Klingon Bird of Prey, or D7 cruiser.

The first thing that i thought of when i saw that picture was the Bird Of Prey from the Star Trek Generations movie. Nice!

[edit on 7-1-2006 by BlackThorn311]

I have been baffled by a picture of the C-309 for nearly 30 years Matej! I always knew it was called the C-309 and that it was intended for an attempt on the world propellor driven speed record. It featured in an advert asking for funding in Flight in 1976 (which I still have) but I never knew it was a Colani design until now. Well done

edit; heres a quick scan of it, sorry about the quality;



[edit on 7-1-2006 by waynos]

Looks like a Zerg ship from Starcraft. Anybody here play that game

Weird. It astounds me what can actually fly at times! That frst one just looks like it would struggle getting to the runway.

Any video of them though?

did the first 3 actualy fly i know the Mach 5 one didnt but did any of the others fly.

The first one looks more like a boat to me, but I will agree with the others, it is reminescent of a klingon bird of prey. Pretty cool looking.

The second one looks more like the fossilised spine of some dinosuar.
Could it actually fly?

The third one is cool looking, reminds me of the big ship from the Lilo and Stitch movie.

The fourth one, well, it looks like something I'd want to be very far away from while it's running.



Do any of you think any of the first three designs might get made and tested?
I think it would be pretty cool if they were.


Also, do you have any links about these planes?

[edit on 1/8/2006 by iori_komei]

The first one reminds me of something right of SF Animation Gundam Wing series.

Anyone else?

Shattered OUT...

Here's another one designed by the same guy

Wow, I am fascinated by those propeller angles of a couple of the pictures. They have a really agressive angle to their screw!

Realy intresting planes, the first one did realy remind me of a Bird of Prey. I think we should have it as a space craft (make the alians think were Klingon).

Originally posted by picklewalsh
Realy intresting planes, the first one did realy remind me of a Bird of Prey. I think we should have it as a space craft (make the alians think were Klingon).

Heh, and as standard communication lingo... ...Klingon!

Wow. they are some really amazing designs.

I agree witht the others who say the first one looks like a Bird of Prey lol.

to the OP: Nice Find.

I'm also curious about whether any of these flew. Those are some pretty out-there designs; definitely would be kind of refreshing to know that the standard aerospace shapes aren't the only ones that would work.

wow those designs are nice.... i'd fly in one of those if they went into service

Originally posted by dragon72
Here's another one designed by the same guy

Is that real or a scale model?

^^It's definitly a model. I think if it really existed we would all know about it.

Originally posted by MCory1
I'm also curious about whether any of these flew. Those are some pretty out-there designs; definitely would be kind of refreshing to know that the standard aerospace shapes aren't the only ones that would work.

The standard fuselage with two wings stuck on is definitely not the only shape that 'will work'... however, its the only configuration that is well understood and thus development costs are kept low. It also is relatively easy to undergo the certification process for such a design rather than these star wars ideas.


Effectively lawyers are defining what we can build. Sad, but ultimately true (although there is some sound reasoning behind it)

this megalogon crap is unreal so get your fact right from mrs jackey keane from pennville new jersey