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Ufimtsev's Spheroplans

 

In 1909 a Russian designer named Anatolii Georgyevich Ufimtsev produced a circular-winged airplane, the Spheroplan, with a 20 hp engine. It did not fly. A second model with a 60 hp engine was also unsuccessful.

Ironically, another Ufimtsev - mathematician Pyotr Ufimtsev - would lay the theoretical groundwork in the 1960s for methods that would later be used by US engineers to design the first radar-scattering "stealth" aircraft, the USAF/Lockheed HAVE BLUE and F-117 Nighthawk.

Spheroplan 1

Spheroplan 2

Spheroplan 2 Drawings