Another incipient attempt at scratchbuilding from 11 years ago, for the Pioneer thread.
This…plane? was built in 1913 for the Great Lakes Reliability Cruise competition. During its trials, much to the dismay of its builders, pilot and bystanders, it stubbornly refused not only to get airborne, but also to taxi.
The naïve advertisement that pretended to sell this invention on magazines sold it as “Faster Than Hydroplanes, Safer Than Motor Boats”, which for the second statement might be true, since it was practically stationary.
Of the panoply of adventurous designs that populate the pioneer era, some are truly remarkable, almost unforgettable in their defiance to logic. And that’s precisely the reason that makes them what they are, outstanding samples of alternative thinking.
Oh, poetic winds of an era of creativity, make these winged fairies fly into the vast horizons of our imagination.