Christmas Bullet
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The Christmas Bullet was an airplane designed on behalf of the United States Army Air Forces by "Dr." William Christmas in 1918. It is considered by many to be the worst aircraft ever constructed.
Christmas had little expertise in aircraft manufacturing or design, but convinced two brothers, Henry and Alfred MaCorey, to back him. They then paid a vist to the Continental aircraft company where Christmas convinced management that his planned airplane would be the key element in an audacious plot to kidnap Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
Convinced by his story they started to build the plane named "The Bullet" or the "Christmas Bullet". His design (such as it was Christmas doesn't appear to have drawn out any designs) lacked any kind of struts or braces for the wings. Christmas apparently believed that, in flight, the wings would flex or even flap like those of a bird to provide lift.
On its maiden flight, the wings of the Bullet peeled from the fuselage and the airplane crashed to the ground. The pilot was killed. A second plane was built to similar specifications, with an identical outcome. His first test flight had been conducted using a "Liberty Six" engine (a cut-down variant of the famous Liberty Twelve very likely the prototype); afterward he was reprimanded by the Army for wasting their expensive new engine without authorization.
Some histories record that the U.S. military was sufficiently impressed to award him $100,000 for his efforts (this amounts to over $1.2 million in 2005 dollars). The truth is somewhat more complicated — Christmas did receive a patent for the Bullet design in 1914, and Christmas later claimed to have sold the rights to his design for moveable ailerons in 1923, for $100,000. However, this has never been substantiated.
[edit] Sources
- Aerofiles A Century of American Aviation
- Aerospecweb
- The World's Worst Aircraft James Gilbert ISBN 0-340-21824-X
