The Greatest Planes That Never Were

top left: Castle in St. Cloud

Agent Leonard Brown defies an alien invasion force on the cover of Dynamo number 3 (Tower Comics, March 1967). Artwork by Wally Wood, image has fallen into the public domain as no copyright notice was attached More

Frontispiece of the 1659 edition of Der Fliegende Wandersmann nach dem Mond, a German translation of Bishop Godwin's The Man in the Moone

The frontispiece and title page of the second edition of Francis Godwin's Man in the Moone

Guerre Infernale by Pierre Giffard, illustrated by A. Robida, published by Vaugirard in 1908. Public Domain – Image was published over 100 years ago.

Frontispiece from The man in the moone, or A discourse of a voyage thither by Domingo Gonsales the speedy messenger, 1638, by Francis Godwin (1562-1633). STC 11943.5, Houghton Library, Harvard University

Deutsch: Einband des Buches La Guerre au vingtième siècle („Der Krieg im 20. Jahrhundert“) von Albert Robida. English: Cover of La Guerre au vingtième siècle (“War in the 20th century”) by Albert Robida.

Français : Couverture de l’ouvrage d’Alfred Robida, Le Vingtième Siècle. La vie électrique, éditions G. Decaux, 1883.

Deutsch: Einband des Buches Le vingtième siècle („Das 20. Jahrhundert“) von Albert Robida. English: Cover of Le vingtième siècle (“The 20th century”) by Albert Robida.

Français : Couverture du Vingtième siècle ou la vie électrique d'Albert Robida.

Paris in a future. Italiano: Parigi nel XX secolo. Illustrazione del 1911 per il romanzo di fantascienza La fin du monde di Camille Flammarion, edito per la prima volta nel 1894.

The two last humans

evacuation by air train

a future. Русский: Фиг. 37 из s:ru:Конец мира (Фламмарион/Предтеченский)/2-I

Title illustration of The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales to the World in the Moon

Identifier: warinairparticul00well (find matches) Title: The war in the air, and particularly how Mr. Bert Smallways fared while it lasted Year: 1908 (1900s) Authors: Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946 More

Identifier: warinairparticul00well (find matches) Title: The war in the air, and particularly how Mr. Bert Smallways fared while it lasted Year: 1908 (1900s) Authors: Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946 More

NASA Puffin concept electrical VTOL aircraft Public domain photograph of NASA experimental aircraft, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Boeing's advanced vehicle concept centers around the familiar blended wing body design like the X-48. What makes this design different is the placement of its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines on the top More

Boeing's advanced vehicle concept centers around the familiar blended wing body design like the X-48. What makes this design different is the placement of its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines on the top More

The "Icon-II" future aircraft design concept for supersonic flight over land comes from the team led by The Boeing Company. A design that achieves fuel burn reduction and airport noise goals, it also achieves More

The Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research, or SUGAR, Volt future aircraft design comes from the research team led by The Boeing Company. The Volt is a twin-engine concept with a hybrid propulsion system that More

This future aircraft design concept comes from the research team led by GE Aviation. Much lighter and more aerodynamic than current aircraft with the same capacity, the 20-passenger aircraft would reduce fuel More

Lockheed Martin's advanced vehicle concept proposes a box wing design, which is now feasible thanks to modern lightweight composite (nonmetallic) materials, landing gear technologies and other advancements. It More

This future aircraft design concept for supersonic flight over land comes from the team led by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. The team's simulation shows possibility for achieving overland flight by dramatic More

Our ability to fly at supersonic speeds over land in civil aircraft depends on our ability to reduce the level of sonic booms. NASA has been exploring a variety of options for quieting the boom, starting with More

The "double bubble" D8 Series future aircraft design concept comes from the research team led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Based on a modified tube and wing with a very wide fuselage to provid More

The "double bubble" D8 Series future aircraft design concept comes from the research team led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Based on a modified tube and wing with a very wide fuselage to provid More

The Hybrid Wing Body H-Series future aircraft design concept comes from the research team led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This design is suitable for intercontinental flights and larger passe More

The Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Project is a multiphase, collaborative research project conducted by NASA and Boeing Research and Technology. The research focuses on developing concepts that More

This idea for a possible future aircraft is called a "hybrid wing body" or sometimes a blended wing body. In this design, the wing blends seamlessly into the body of the aircraft, which makes it extremely aero More

NASA Puffin concept electrical VTOL aircraft Public domain photograph of NASA experimental aircraft, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

This computer-generated image shows a possible future "flying wing" aircraft, very efficiently and quietly in flight over populated areas. This kind of design, produced by Northrop Grumman, would most likely c More

Northrop Grumman's concept is based on the extremely aerodynamic "flying wing" design. The four Rolls Royce engines are embedded in the upper surface of the wing to achieve maximum noise shielding. The company More

The Silent Efficient Low Emissions Commercial Transport, or SELECT, future aircraft design comes from the research team led by Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation. Deceptively conventional-looking, the concep More

ARES soaring over Mars. Public domain photograph of NASA experimental aircraft, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

ARES martian rocket plane Public domain photograph of NASA experimental aircraft, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Members of the ARES research team at the NASA Langley Research Center posing with a full-scale test airplane. Team leader Joel S. Levine is on the bottom right.

Dr. Joel S. Levine stands next to the ARES Mars Airplane that was featured on a new one-hour program entitled, "Future Flight," produced by CBS News and telecast on The Discovery Channel, on September 19, 2008.

Nasa Quiet Supersonic Technology Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator Public domain photograph of NASA experimental aircraft, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

The X-59 designation has been added to the graphic for the Low-Boom Flight Demonstration mission, which depicts the two key aspects of the effort – the X-plane and the community overflight campaigns it will later fly.

NASA awards a contract for the design, building and testing of a supersonic aircraft to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company of Palmdale, California.

The window in the sidewall of the 8- by 6-foot supersonic wind tunnel at NASA's Glenn Research Center shows a 1.79 percent scale model of a future concept supersonic aircraft built by The Boeing Company. In re More

Inside Glenn's 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel, technician Dan Pitts inspects Boeing's 1.79% scale model, which shows the two installed flow-through nacelles.

Samantha O’Flaherty, Test Engineer for Jacobs Technology Inc., finalizes the set-up of the Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) Preliminary Design Model inside the 14- by- 22 Foot Subsonic Tunnel at NASA Langl More

Samantha O’Flaherty, Test Engineer for Jacobs Technology Inc., finalizes the set-up of the Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) Preliminary Design Model inside the 14- by- 22 Foot Subsonic Tunnel at NASA Langl More

Illustration of the completed X-59 QueSST landing on a runway

Four-view drawing of US experimental aircraft X-59.

Tweet Text:Our @NASAAero X-59 ✈️ was cleared for final assembly & integration of its systems. The X-59 is designed to fly faster than sound without loud sonic booms. Data from the flights will help establish More

The Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Project is a multiphase, collaborative research project conducted by NASA and Boeing Research and Technology. The research focuses on developing concepts that More

Convair Aerospace V/STOL Fighter-Attack Public domain photograph of aircraft, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Convair Model 200A 3-Nozzle Lifting RCS 331

Convair Model 200A lift plus lift-cruise general arrangement (front view)

Convair Model 200A lift plus lift-cruise general arrangement (side view)

Convair Model 200A lift plus lift-cruise general arrangement (top)

Convair Model 200A peculiar modifications

The X-59 small-scale model is seen in NASA Glenn’s 8- by- 6-foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel. The model was inverted with the shock wave sensor array mounted on the tunnel’s ceiling during the testing.

Boeing XB-59 as submitted to the U.S. Air Force