10 Planes that Crashed on Their First Flight (Top 10 crashed debutantes)

Maiden flights made in hell

CREDIT: Air Force Test Center

There is a reason test pilots have a reputation for cool-headed bravery. Historically, it has been a dangerous occupation, with many planes ending testing in fiery explosions or on the seafloor. Some planes didn’t even make it past their maiden flights. Here are 10 aircraft that crashed on their First Flight

10. Northrop XP-79B ‘Unflying Wing’

Most aircraft manufacturers used aluminium as their primary material, but some of the more maverick aircraft designers saw the potential of magnesium. These non-conformists also tended to put the propeller at the back in the ‘pusher configuration’. In 1943, Northrop flew the XP-56 ‘Black Bullet’, an aircraft that had seemingly flown in from a parallel universe.

This bat-winged fighter had an extremely unconventional design, and like the later Planet Satellite, it was a ‘Magnesium pusher’. The XP-56 proved dangerous to fly, and delays in its testing meant it was still unready at a time when piston-engine fighters were yesterday’s technology.

Had the XP-79B proved successful, it is probable that the Spice Girls would never have met.

Somebody at Northrop clearly thought the XP-56 was not radical enough and began work on the exceptionally unusual XP-79, in which the unlucky pilot would have to lie down as he controlled a rocket-propelled flying wing while manoeuvring his aircraft to slice enemy aircraft in half with its leading edges.

Despite the benefits of magnesium (exceptionally light and strong), it has a reputation for bursting into flames and, if impure, corroding easily. On its maiden flight on September 12, 1945, the XP-79B spun out of control after seven minutes. Test pilot Harry Crosby bailed out but was struck by the aircraft and killed. Shortly afterwards, the project was binned.

9. De Bruyère C 1 ‘Out for a duck!’

The de Bruyère C 1 was a prototype for a French fighter aircraft developed during World War I. Conceived by Marcel de Bruyère, it featured an unconventional single-seat, pusher canard design. Only one example was ever constructed, and it crashed on its maiden flight in 1917, ending the project entirely.

The C 1 was a biplane with equal-span, staggered wings supported by inverted V-struts. Pitch control came from a one-piece, all-moving canard foreplane, while full chord tip ailerons managed roll on the upper wing—an unusual solution. The 150-horsepower Hispano-Suiza 8Aa engine was placed behind the wings.

De Bruyère C 1

A long shaft connected the engine to a pusher propeller mounted at the tail. The aircraft lacked a fixed horizontal stabiliser but had a short vertical fin and long tail skid to protect the rear-mounted propeller. Its tricycle landing gear and metal fuselage were extremely advanced for the time.

Large circular side windows gave reasonable downward visibility, and it was armed with a single ferocious 37mm cannon. During testing at Étampes in April 1917, the aircraft reached around 25 feet before rolling uncontrollably and crashing inverted. The pilot survived, but the C 1’s poor performance led to its immediate abandonment. Years later, the canard configuration would dominate European combat aircraft design.

8. Tarrant Tabor ‘Who wants to be a legionnaire?’

Chris Tarrant and the Tarrant Tabor — one a game show titan, the other a titan that never quite got off the ground. While Tarrant soared to fame with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, lifting contestants (and ratings) higher than ever imagined, whereas the Tarrant Tabor, an experimental WWI-era bomber, attempted to soar once… and promptly nosedived into infamy.

One asked, “Is that your final answer?” with suspenseful poise; the other was the final answer to the question, “What happens if you put six engines on wings that can’t take the weight?” Chris knows how to handle a dramatic pause. The Tarrant Tabor was a dramatic pause — right before a very abrupt stop.

(That’s enough Chris Tarrant comparisons now, get on with it! –Ed)

On completion, the Tabor was the world’s largest aeroplane and was intended to fly from British bases to bomb Berlin. Designed by Walter Barling and Marcel Lobelle, who would later be responsible for the highly successful Fairey Swordfish, the Tabor featured a vast and beautifully crafted lightweight wooden monocoque fuselage built from layered plywood veneers that possessed great strength and an excellent aerodynamic shape.

As originally designed, it was to be a biplane featuring four 600 hp Siddeley Tiger engines mounted in push/pull pairs. Unfortunately, production of the engines was delayed, and the decision was made to use six 450hp Napier Lions instead and add a third wing above the existing two. Four of the Lion engines were mounted in pairs as before but with the further two added between the upper two wings, a decision that was to have calamitous results.

Tarrant Tabor

The war for which the Tabor was designed came to an end before the aircraft was complete, but construction continued as it was thought that it might make an excellent transport aircraft. Completed in May 1919, the Tabor was wondrous to behold, with a wingspan 6 metres greater than an Avro Lancaster; this was an aircraft that was vast by the standards of the day, but its 11.36 metre (37ft 3in) height was utterly unprecedented.

The first take-off was attempted on May 26 after taxiing in a mile-wide circle to check ground handling. Pilots Dunn and Rawlings accelerated the giant machine across the field. The two upper engines were throttled up, the Tabor pitched forward and buried its nose expensively in the ground, and all five of the crew on board were seriously injured (sadly, Dunn and Rawlings both died later of their injuries).

7. Blackburn Pellet ‘Lancashire Hot-Not’

Of all British aircraft manufacturers, Blackburn Aircraft Limited have the worst reputation, and the Pellet was one of many of its inglorious aeroplanes. In 1923, Blackburn set its sights on the prestigious Schneider Trophy with a single-engine biplane flying boat—the rather unglamorously named Pellet.

The Pellet’s hull, adapted from the abandoned N.1B fleet escort bomber, featured Linton Hope’s smooth, two-step mahogany construction. The aircraft had a compact biplane layout with a Napier Lion engine perched above the top wing. Flush radiators cooled it, and the pilot sat precariously ahead of the propeller.

Plagued by delays, the Pellet missed its planned July launch, first flying only on September 26—just one day before the race. Initial flight tests exposed critical issues in trim and cooling. Overnight, engineers replaced the propeller and radiator, scrambling to make the aircraft competition-ready in time for its first flight as a racer (ok, so it wasn’t strictly speaking its first flight, but we want to include it).

A pellet, in ornithology, is the mass of undigested parts of a bird's food that some bird species occasionally regurgitate. The contents of a bird's pellet depend on its diet, but can include the exoskeletons of insects, indigestible plant matter, bones, fur, feathers, bills, claws, and teeth. In falconry, the pellet is called a casting. The aircraft was not named after this form of pellet.

On race day, disaster struck. While attempting take-off for the final trials, the Pellet encountered a small boat in its path. The flying boat began porpoising—bouncing dangerously on the water—before breaking apart. The aircraft was destroyed, but remarkably, the pilot (R.W. Kenworthy) escaped the wreckage without injury.

6. Westland Dreadnought ‘Dreadnought Holiday’

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Westland aimed to refine German-Dutch metal aircraft technology and explore a unified aerofoil design. Airco’s chairman sent William Wilkins to Russia, returning with inventor Nikolai Voevodsky. His monocoque wing ideas intrigued British researchers eager to match foreign progress. Civil war halted Russian collaboration, but Voevodsky’s concepts of making the entire aircraft of aerofoil cross-section and thus contributing to lift impressed the Aeronautical Research Committee.

Westland built a 70-foot wingspan aircraft from Voevodsky’s concepts, but this extremely advanced design was deeply