So, I got a few old heli's, a balloon & some meccano ...

Intel says it's the Piasecki PA-97 Helistat (U.S. Navy and U.S. Forest Service 1986), a $40 million experimental heavy-lift aircraft, built by Frank Piasecki by fastening four obsolete Sikorsky H-34J helicopters to a framework beneath a ZPG-2W helium blimp...

Designed to lift 26 tons, flight tests proved it to be so unstable as to be uncontrollable. It crashed at Lakehust, New Jersey in July 1986, killing one of the pilots.

Inside the balloon

Harrier Salvage

Full story here

Harrier!

Harrier air flow

Lockheed P-38 Lightning back from dead ( 2 )

July 1942 two Boeing B-17 bombers were being escorted by six Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters as they flew over Greenland towards Reykjavik, Iceland.
Disoriented by poor visibility, and a decision to return to base and abandone thier mission caused them to run out of fuel.
They had no choice but to crash-land on the icecap of Greenland.

The men were rescued later, but the aircraft left to thier Icy fate, became known as the lost squadron.

Fifty years later a rescue paarty of enthusiasts returne for the aircraft.

The Glacier Girl, the twin-engine P-38 “Lightning” fighter that was recovered from beneath the Greenland ice cap in 1992, is now fully restored and amazing audiences with her story wherever she goes.

More detailed intel here, here and here

Lockheed P-38 Lightning back from dead ( 1 )

For 65 years, holidaying families have built sandcastles, strolled and swum, all unaware that underneath them lay the ramains of the P-38 Lightning which crash landed in WW2.
The fighter plane re-emerged after freak weather conditions caused the sands to shift and expose its rusting frame on the beach in Gwynedd, north Wales.


It used to look like this

ALIENS in WW2

AIRCRAFT OF THE FUTURE ( 9 ) Polish Flying Steam Liner

artwork by Polish artist Michal Kwolek. Concept from 1930s-50s Poland

AIRCRAFT OF THE FUTURE ( 8 ) 1950s Giant Helicopter

Ice Aircraft Carrier

Artwork by Dominic Harman from a mad British WW2 concept of massive Ice aircraft carriers.

AIRCRAFT OF THE FUTURE ( 7 ) Airship Aircraft Carrier circa 1930

AIRCRAFT OF THE FUTURE ( 6 ) SkyFreighter

SkyFreighter.
From the Millennium Airship Company.
It can haul 500 plus tons and has speeds averaging 100 mph for 6000 miles unrefueled.



Website here http://www.millenniumairship.com/millenium_airship_inc.htm

It stalled, no problem...

Swiss (or Swish!) Jet Man!

Yves Rossy, the Swiss Jet Man.
Yves flys a deployable 3-meter wing, powered by dual jet engines, that is capable of reaching speeds of up to 100mph. He built it himself. Here you can see him perform a demonstration, in which he jumps from a plane and flies for approximately 4-minutes, landing by parachute.

Presumably when the fuel ran out.

Bizarre

AMAZING HAWKER HURRICANE RECOVERY

A Russian Air Force Hawker Hurricane, shot down in WW2, found with sonar by recovery expert Jim Pearce and his dedicated team.

http://www.warbirdfinders.co.uk/home.htm

Amazing Messerschmidt ME109 Recovery

1942, Russia, the Eastern Front. Four Hawker Hurricanes of the Soviet Air Force 5880-engage four ME109’s and one BF110 of the Luftwaffe in combat.

One bullet riddled ME109 makes a near perfect wheels up landing on the ice of a frozen lake. It later sinks through the melting ice and lays on the lakebed, untouched until it was recovered in August 2003.

More of this terrific story and other exciting recoveries at:-

http://www.warbirdfinders.co.uk/home.htm

MV-22 Osprey

Approx 448 of these versatile craft will serve with the US forces, although originally they wanted over 900. Battle damage tolerance is built into the aircraft via composite construction, and separated flight control, electrical, and hydraulic systems.

AIRCRAFT OF THE FUTURE ( 4 ) 1900 vision