You Won’t Believe These Planes Never Made It To Production

Avro Canada VZ-9 – 1959

This one from the U.S. military gives me mixed feelings. I don’t know if I should feel ashamed or proud. It looks like a UFO, AND it flies. It surely begs us to ask, why U.S. military, why? The concept borrows more from helicopters than jets, with vertical takeoffs using a single turbo rotor. The goal was a very fast maneuverable craft, able to take on fighter jets. The Air Force scaled the project back repeatedly until what they had left was pretty, but slow. They didn’t want it anymore, so the army took a crack, but the VZ-9 was too unreliable in the air.