whilst chatting about bomb bats a few days ago,
NYCasual remarked upon a inflatable plane, the thinking, at one stage behind the scheme, was that it could be dropped by parachute behind enemy lines, so that a valuable human resource, the pilot, could fly his way back to fight again, it is a quite remarkable invention.
It took about five minutes to inflate to about 25 lbf/in² (170 kPa); at full size, it was 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m) long, with a 22 ft (6.7 m) wingspan.
It came complete in it's 1.25 cubic meter container with a 40 hp (30 kW) Nelson engine, and could take off with a maximum load of 240 lb (109 kg). On 20 US gallons (76 L) of fuel, the aircraft could fly 390 miles (630 km), with an endurance of 6.5 hours. Maximum speed was 72 mph (116 km/h), with a cruise speed of 60 mph. The project was ultimatly canceled in 1973.
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