Aircraft that Never Really Were -- Part 1 Quiz

Answer: The Songbird

"Sky King" began as a radio programme in 1946 which remained on the air until 1954. In the TV series (1951-1959), Schuyler "Sky" King flew a Cessna T-50 and then a Cessna 310B, both of which were named "The Songbird." Sky was a father figure to his niece Penny and his nephew Clipper.

Answer: F-19 Ghostrider

The F-19 is a (potentially) actual designation for a US fighter airplane. Although the designator has not been used, there has been intense speculation that it describes a super-secret highly-advance aircraft. Clancy used this speculation to create the F-19 "Frisbee" which is significantly successful in defending NATO in the novel. Both the Testor Corporation and the Monogram Company produced model kits from which speculative F-19 stealth fighters could be built by hobbyists.

Answer: A Zeppelin-type rigid airship

The film is set in 1938 Los Angeles. A Nazi secret agent is out to steal the rocket pack which allows Cliff Secord to fly without an airplane. When the spy's identity is discovered, the Germans try to extricate him by sending the airship Luxembourg, LZ-131, but it is destroyed in the exciting conclusion to the film.

Answer: Ornithopter

The ornithopter was used mostly for passenger and light cargo transport in planetary atmospheres. Some were armed; some were shielded. Their name derives from two Greek words: "ornitho" meaning bird and "pter" meaning wing.

Answer: the Sea Duck

This airplane is based, in part, on the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar and, in part, on the Grumman HU-16 amphibian. The Sea Duck. painted red and yellow, withstands adventures which would render a lesser plane irreparable. It requires a crew of two: Baloo the pilot and Kit Cloudkicker the navigator. Baloo calls his plane a "mean, clean flying machine."

Answer: Blue Thunder

Roy Scheider starred as a Vietnam-veteran chopper pilot flying helicopters for the Los Angeles Police Department. Both the aircraft and the movie were named "Blue Thunder." The helicopters used in the film were French Aérospatiale SA-341G Gazelles modified to look ferocious.

Although the movie ranked first at the box office in the U.S. in its initial week of release, a subsequent attempt at a 1984 television series with James Farentino failed and was cancelled after eleven episodes.

Answer: BV-38 Flying Wing

The Blohm and Voss Flying Wing was imagined on the lines of the Horten Ho 229, a flying-wing fighter-bomber which was never produced. The Germans also planned a jet model, the Horten IX. The BV-38 looked a lot like the Junkers G-38 was which was produced in 1929. The BV-38 was piston-engine powered twin pusher propeller design.

Answer: Oblivion

Based on a graphic novel by Joseph Kosinski (who co-produced and directed), "Oblivion" tells the story of Earth after war with aliens requires removal of the human population to Titan, the moon of Saturn. Jack Harper remains on Earth performing technical functions and flying around in his Bubble Ship -- an aircraft modeled after the bulbous Bell 47 helicopter, only cooler.

Answer: Drake Bullet

Gable plays Jim Lane, a test pilot for the Drake aircraft manufacturing company who is troubled by alcohol and a reckless spirit. He falls in love with Myrna Loy's character after he lands his Drake Bullet (a modified U.S. Army Air Corps Seversky P-35) in her Kansas cornfield. The film also stars Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore and Marjorie Main.

Answer: The Albatross

In Verne's imagination, the Albatross is a large airship, driven by many battery-powered multi-rotor gydrodynes. Each airscrew is so oriented as to provide either lift or thrust. There is some sense in which this design anticipated the helicopter. The novel was made into a 1961 movie starring Vincent Price.