Blowing Up an Airplane

[beamjockey]

Among the oddest aircraft ever built was the Goodyear Inflatoplane, which was exactly what it sounds like.

I found a wonderful demonstration on Youtube, from an episode of I've Got a Secret, where contestants quiz Goodyear engineer J. Thomas Blair.

There's an amusing surprise at the end, once host Garry Moore climbs aboard.

Comments

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Lots of fun on the beach too, but I suspect the downed airman would need sheerlegs as well as a compressor to set it up!

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I had to look that up before I could laugh.

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

How typical of men to inflate an airplane and leave it lying around for the little woman to deflate using her ladies' vacuum cleaner. Girls, don't we just hate it when that happens? Ooh, I stamp my little high-heeled foot in frustration! Oops -- maybe not a good idea inside an inflated rubber airplane.* But to be fair, we ladies do get to wear the nice blindfolds with white trim around the edges.

I am impressed at how well-prepared Moore was to fill time, even if it amounted to reading the Goodyear press release. I also note that the show's producers considered Garry Moore expendable.

AFAIK, my father had nothing to do with the Inflatoplane. He was busy with the Polaris missile and carbon filament textiles.

*Here at the Acme Rubber Spaceship Company, we only wear Crocs and we keep the cats' claws carefully trimmed. Let this be a lesson to all of you engaged in neoprene aeronautics. Which, like so many other random phrases, is a good name for a band.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Let's try this again. The first time, when I grabbed the mouse to click "Add a comment" my iMac shifted to the Widgets window and when I got back the browser was on a different page.

The technology used to shape the inflated parts is very clever, consisting of filaments of carefully chosen lengths between the layers. This strikes me as having potential uses far beyond aviation.

I wonder if the proposed inflatable space habitat modules are similar...

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

"I wonder if the proposed inflatable space habitat modules are similar..."

They aren't, as the inflatable habs are simple cylinders with domed ends.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I am amused and impressed!

[bedii.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend you look at the man-powered aircraft that Freddie To worked on in the 80's, or the earlier inflatable man-powered aircraft "The Reluctant Phoenix." To's design would be much easier to build than the Inflatoplane--semi-over-the-counter items.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia's article has photos of several of the planes, including what looks like if-not-the-exact-same-plane-then-another-of-that-model from the TV show, in flight. Some of them had enclosed cockpits.