Buzz
The lure of gaining an edge on the battlefield is powerful enough to persuade generals and politicians to pour funds into military projects with the hope that they might succeed. As this list demonstrates, though, innovation is a risky endeavor. For every technological triumph like radar or the bouncing bomb, there are several costly, inefficient failures.
Some of the most captivating projects are the ones that came dangerously close to becoming reality, driven by a determined individual or the potential benefits they promised—if only they worked as intended. From rocket-powered drums to chicken-warmed nukes, these are the most unusual military inventions that almost made it to the frontlines.
10. The Puckle Gun
Created in 1718 by British lawyer James Puckle, the Puckle gun was the world’s first patented multi-shot firearm. It could fire three times faster than a soldier equipped with a traditional single-shot flintlock rifle or musket—while maintaining similar accuracy and range.
The Puckle gun could even launch uniquely designed square bullets intended to inflict maximum pain. It was far ahead of its time, and had it been embraced by a major military force, it could have revolutionized warfare, much like the Gatling gun did a century and a half later.
Unfortunately, the Puckle gun’s innovation was both its strength and its downfall. It was unreliable, costly to manufacture, and its complex components made mass production unfeasible. To make matters worse, it didn’t fit with the military strategies of the time.
Although not a large weapon, the Puckle gun required a stationary position to fire. Furthermore, the time it took to disassemble, relocate, and reassemble it was simply too slow for the military leaders of that era. Consequently, it was never adopted by any major global power.
9. Pigeon-Guided Missiles
The pigeon-guided missile is exactly what its name suggests. It was a World War II-era missile with three pigeons housed in the nose cone, each trained to peck at an image of a German Bismarck-class battleship. When the pigeon tapped the center of its screen, the missile would fly in a straight line. If the pigeon pecked off-center, the missile would adjust its path to return to the target.
Though it may sound absurd, the pigeon-guided missile was both operational and surprisingly reliable. The concept was developed by B.F. Skinner, a renowned Harvard University psychology professor famous for his behavior experiments with rats. After creating the missile, Skinner remarked that pigeons were far easier to train than rats, and he would never use rats again.
While the concept was fully tested, it was never employed in battle. Skinner blamed the military's reluctance to trust pigeons with such a crucial task. However, in reality, his invention was overshadowed by the development of radar-guided missiles, which arrived just in time to render his idea obsolete.
8. The Bat Bomb
“Imagine thousands of fires erupting at once across a 64-kilometer (40-mile) radius with each bomb dropped.” This was the vivid vision of Pennsylvania dentist Lytle S. Adams, who envisioned Japan being ravaged by a series of fires set by small incendiary devices carried by hundreds of bats.
The idea didn’t come out of nowhere. Adams was an avid spelunker and had been fascinated by the bats he saw during a recent trip to Carlsbad Caverns. Upon hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor, he came up with his unusual plan and brought it to his friend, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Thanks to Adams’s connection with Roosevelt, his strange proposal reached higher levels than one might expect for a plan involving bombs strapped to bats. The National Research Defense Committee eventually became interested. In time, “Project X-Ray” received over $2 million to address the challenges of bat transportation and synchronized release.
The bat bomb might have worked if it had been refined further, but the US military ultimately decided to allocate all its resources to a more powerful weapon. In the end, the atomic bomb simply took precedence over the bat bomb.
7. The Great Panjandrum
The Great Panjandrum was a bizarre yet powerful creation—a pair of 3-meter-wide (10 ft) rocket-powered wheels attached to a drum filled with explosives. The Panjandrum was intended to charge across a beach at car-like speeds, blasting a huge gap in the German defenses to allow British troops and tanks to break through.
As expected, this rocket-powered explosive was highly unpredictable. The Panjandrum proved to be dangerously unstable and could never be relied upon to travel in the intended direction.
Designers attempted to improve stability by adding a third wheel and steel cables for steering, but nothing really solved the problem. Moreover, when the Panjandrum hit its top speed of 97 kilometers per hour (60 mph), the rockets often detached from the structure.
Despite this, the Panjandrum was put to the test in front of high-ranking military officials in January 1944. The test started off smoothly. The Panjandrum rolled through the surf in a straight line and began to pick up speed. However, as it gained momentum, the rockets began to detach, firing off uncontrollably in all directions.
The Panjandrum quickly turned into a whirling fireball, nearly running down the official cameraman. As the Great Panjandrum disintegrated into a blazing heap of wreckage on the beach, so did any hopes of it being used in real combat scenarios.
6. Hajile
Hajile was conceived by the same minds behind the Great Panjandrum, and in terms of explosive failure, it set a new benchmark. Designed as an early retrorocket, Hajile was meant to slow the descent of supplies dropped from planes. While this idea was recently successfully applied to land the Curiosity rover on Mars (as seen in the image above), the Hajile project was far from successful.
The Hajile project got its name as the reverse of “Elijah,” the biblical figure who ascended to heaven on a pillar of fire. Initially, Hajile was tested on concrete blocks with rockets attached to them. When a weight hanging below the block hit the ground, the rockets would ignite to slow the descent of the payload.
However, the first three tests were complete failures. Twice, the rockets didn’t slow the descent enough. In the third test, an excess of fuel caused the payload to be launched several dozen feet into the air.
The device continued to be tested until it eventually succeeded in a limited way, and two jeeps were provided by the United States Navy for real-world testing. One jeep crashed into the ground at 48 kilometers per hour (30 mph), while the other was successfully landed with minimal damage, though it was flipped upside down.
Highly unreliable, the project was abandoned as World War II came to an end.
5. Nellie
Known as “Nellie” or the “White Rabbit,” this machine was doomed from the start as it was created to address an outdated problem. Nellie was an armored vehicle designed to carve a trench through enemy defenses, allowing other machines to advance through the trench and bypass the fortifications.
As a pet project of Winston Churchill, work on the White Rabbit continued long after it became clear that it wasn’t the only or best solution to the issues tanks faced with defensive structures.
Over time, it became evident that Nellie wasn’t even a good solution to these issues. It had a turning radius of 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) and was almost impossible to steer. The cramped cockpit was unbearable, and perhaps most concerning, serious doubts arose about the wisdom of using a near-immobile machine with a long trench behind it in an era of frequent bombing raids.
Despite Churchill’s continued belief in the project, it was officially abandoned in 1943. He later admitted that the project would have been scrapped years earlier if not for his involvement, and he ultimately declared himself “responsible but impenitent” for his misguided enthusiasm.
4. Maus
World War II wasn’t just a stage for the Allies to present unusual ideas. Adolf Hitler was especially fixated on the idea of an indestructible superheavy tank. He pitched the concept in 1942, though few within the higher ranks of the German military shared his passion. The Maus, or ‘mouse,’ was a massive 200-ton tank designed by Ferdinand Porsche, but it encountered persistent mechanical failures from the beginning.
The driveshaft was a particular point of failure, constantly breaking down. Even with the power of a massive Daimler-Benz aircraft engine, the Maus could only manage a top speed of 19 kilometers per hour (12 mph). It was armored with 23 centimeters (9 inches) of steel, but lacked any machine guns, making it unsuitable for close combat—something top German officers feared would be a frequent necessity.
Plans were made to produce 150 of these tanks, but the generals’ objections proved insurmountable. As a result, only two prototypes were ever completed.
3. The Gay Bomb
The concept of a ‘gay bomb’ is a disturbing blend of misguided science and deep-seated homophobia, sounding more like something from the 1950s than modern times. However, in 1994, the US Air Force’s Wright Laboratory sought a staggering $7.5 million to create a chemical aphrodisiac that could be deployed through explosives, allegedly provoking ‘homosexual behavior’ in enemy soldiers.
Scientifically, the idea was a complete failure. There is no known mechanism through which a chemical could cause heterosexual individuals to suddenly adopt a different sexual orientation. Additionally, no aphrodisiac has ever been proven to have a significant or consistent impact on human behavior, let alone one so drastic.
On a conceptual level, the idea was equally flawed. There’s no evidence to suggest that a ‘gay orgy’ would have any detrimental effect on troop morale. In fact, history shows that many highly skilled soldiers are also openly gay, with no negative impact on their performance or commitment to their roles.
As a result, the funding never materialized, and the entire project mercifully remained at the conceptual stage without moving forward.
2. The Blue Peacock
At first glance, the Cold War-era design of the Blue Peacock might not seem all that bizarre. It was a large nuclear mine, intended to be buried by British forces in West Germany to be detonated in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe.
However, the design had a significant flaw. When buried deep underground, the device would become cold, and if the temperature dropped too much, the detonator might fail to trigger the nuclear explosion.
The proposed solution takes a strange twist. The scientists overseeing the project suggested that chickens be placed inside the bomb's casing with enough food to survive for a week. The chickens' body heat was believed to be sufficient to keep the device functional.
Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the entire plan is that the idea of encasing a nuclear bomb in chickens wasn’t the reason the project was canceled. In fact, it was deemed a perfectly reasonable solution to a very peculiar problem.
The issue wasn’t the political challenge of burying nuclear weapons in an allied country. The real problem was that the British decided the amount of nuclear fallout resulting from the Blue Peacock’s detonation would be unacceptably high.
1. The Coleoptere
The Coleoptere, or “beetle,” is one of the most unusual aircraft ever conceived. Featuring a ring-shaped wing enveloping its fuselage, it was designed for vertical takeoff and landing. The designer even speculated that, once airborne, it could achieve supersonic speeds.
However, from the start, the Coleoptere was riddled with issues. During early hovering tests, pilot Auguste Morel struggled to gauge his altitude, relying solely on the subtle changes in engine sound. Later versions of the Coleoptere also had a disconcerting tendency to spin uncontrollably.
The Coleoptere only achieved horizontal flight by accident. During its ninth and final flight, the aircraft swayed violently during its descent, suddenly accelerating horizontally for a brief moment. The pilot ejected, the Coleoptere crashed and burned, and the project was abandoned.
