A flettner airplane or rotor airplane is an airplane that has no wings but instead uses the Magnus effect to create lift. Thus it is similar to the flettner rotor used in a rotor ship. Such airplanes were first built by Anton Flettner. Flettner airplane should not be confused with the cyclogyro, which uses a different aerodynamic effect, but has a similar configuration of rotors.
Although at least one aircraft was constructed, there was no record of them ever having flown. Recently at least one free-flying model has been built and flown.
Read more about Flettner Airplane: History
Famous quotes containing the word airplane:
“Even though I had let them choose their own socks since babyhood, I was only beginning to learn to trust their adult judgment.. . . I had a sensation very much like the moment in an airplane when you realize that even if you stop holding the plane up by gripping the arms of your seat until your knuckles show white, the plane will stay up by itself. . . . To detach myself from my children . . . I had to achieve a condition which might be called loving objectivity.”
—Anonymous Parent of Adult Children. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 5 (1978)