Buzz
Jets captivate nearly everyone’s imagination, and it’s easy to understand why. They’re fast, powerful, and their sleek designs are undeniably appealing, making them thrilling to watch. However, not all jets are as incredible as the F-16. In fact, many jets, some downright dreadful, have flown through the skies. Here are 10 of the most disastrous jets that left a lot to be desired. They failed for various reasons, but one thing was clear: no one wanted to be in these flying disasters.
10. Vought F7U Cutlass
Before its acquisition by Northrop Grumman, Vought produced some of the U.S. Navy’s most iconic and successful fighters. During World War II, they crafted the F4U Corsair, which served in the Pacific, and the F-8 Crusader, which was used in Vietnam. However, in between, they made some odd aircraft, notably the F7U Cutlass. Intended to modernize the U.S. Navy’s fleet, the F7U ended up being a hazardous and unreliable aircraft, claiming the lives of many pilots due to crashes and mishaps.
The Cutlass was ahead of its time in terms of design, ditching traditional tail control surfaces in favor of a large swept-wing configuration inspired by experimental fighters from the Messerschmitt during World War II. However, during its tests, several issues emerged. Though the Cutlass was fast, it struggled to maintain flight in certain conditions and was plagued by engine problems. Powered by early Westinghouse turbojets, the Cutlass lacked the necessary thrust for efficient takeoff and landing. The first three prototypes, as well as the first two units delivered to the Navy, all crashed. Despite these issues, the Cutlass went into full production. Pilots humorously remarked that Westinghouse toasters had more power than the Cutlass engines.
Vought produced 320 units of their innovative fighter jet, but once they entered squadron service, complaints about issues flooded in. Squadrons struggled to keep the jets airborne due to their high maintenance needs and lost numerous planes in takeoff and landing accidents. Overall, a quarter of all Cutlasses in service were lost in mishaps, earning the fighter unflattering nicknames like 'The Gutlass Cutlass' and 'The Ensign Eliminator.' Most squadrons eventually replaced the F7U with older, more dependable aircraft until something superior came along. Despite the Cutlass's shortcomings, the Blue Angels occasionally flew two of them in side demonstrations during airshows, which was the jet's only real success.
9. PZL M-15
The PZL M-15, a Polish-designed jet, stands as one of the most bizarre aircraft ever mass-produced. It is the only jet biplane in history to go into large-scale production, and also the sole jet crop duster ever to be used in service. In the 1970s, Soviet authorities sought to replace the aging fleet of biplane crop dusters with a more economical option that could efficiently spray vast farmlands. Poland’s PZL, having supplied agricultural planes for years, was tasked with designing the new aircraft.
A key requirement for the new plane was that it had to be powered by a jet engine, a concept never attempted before in crop dusters. PZL built a prototype to see if it was feasible to make a slow-flying agricultural jet. The result? The M-15 could fly at just 161 kilometers per hour (100 mph), with a top speed of only 200 kilometers per hour (124 mph). When it entered service, the M-15 became the slowest jet in history. Due to its loud engine, it was nicknamed 'Belphegor,' after the demon known for its noise in Christian mythology.
Unfortunately, the M-15 failed to meet expectations. Its engine consumed an excessive amount of fuel, making it more costly to operate than the older biplane models. While the jet engine gave it a slight increase in top speed, the improvement was minimal, and the M-15 turned out to be a major letdown. Of the 3,000 units ordered, only 175 were delivered before the Soviets abandoned the project.
Interestingly, many NATO analysts suspected that the M-15 might have had a darker purpose. Given its large pesticide tanks, some believed the M-15 was actually designed for chemical warfare against troops in the event of a Soviet invasion of Europe. Whether or not this was true remains uncertain, but it’s likely the M-15 would have been ineffective for that task as well.
8. Yakovlev Yak-38
When the British Royal Navy introduced the Harrier Jump Jet, other nations recognized the strategic advantage of having a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) fighter. The United States license-built the Harrier for the Marine Corps, while the Soviet Union had to create its own version. Developed by the renowned Yakovlev design bureau, the Yak-38 looked similar to the Harrier but was an inferior aircraft in virtually every way. In fact, the Yak-38 would go on to become one of the most ineffective naval aircraft ever deployed.
Despite its resemblance to the Harrier, the Yak-38 employed a different lift jet system. Engineers at Yakovlev positioned two small thrust vector jets at the tail and two lift jets behind the cockpit. However, because of differences in engine design, the Yak-38 consumed far more fuel than the Harrier during takeoff. This led to a severely limited combat range of just 1,300 kilometers (800 miles), and that was without any weapons on board. In hot conditions, the maximum flight time was only 15 minutes, rendering the aircraft utterly useless as a fleet interceptor.
In addition to its poor endurance, the Yak-38 was plagued by design flaws and a dangerously simplistic structure. With only four weapon pylons, pilots had limited firepower. To reduce weight, the designers opted to forgo radar beyond a basic rangefinder, a massive disadvantage in modern aerial combat. Even if the systems had functioned properly, the Yak-38 was still an incredibly hazardous aircraft to fly. The lift jets had a lifespan of only 22 hours before requiring a full overhaul and were highly susceptible to failure if the intakes drew in too much fuel. Losing a single lift jet meant certain doom for the plane. To prevent fatalities, Yakovlev fitted the fighter with an automatic ejection seat, which would activate if the aircraft rolled more than 60 degrees during takeoff or landing. That system saw plenty of use.
7. Bristol 188
In 1947, Chuck Yeager made history by breaking the sound barrier in the X-1, opening up an entirely new realm for jet aviation. Soon after, jets began pushing to reach ever greater speeds, and air forces around the world needed research aircraft to explore these new flight capabilities. Unfortunately, many of these research planes ended in failure, but none were as disastrous as the Bristol 188.
This sleek and futuristic aircraft was designed with a stainless steel fuselage to exceed Mach 2 and to test new aerodynamics and equipment for the upcoming generation of British fighter jets. The Royal Air Force (RAF) had tasked the Bristol 188 with maintaining speeds of Mach 2.6 for extended periods, which would cause the airframe's surface to heat up to 300 degrees Celsius (570 °F). To meet this extreme requirement, Bristol employed cutting-edge techniques and installed the most powerful engines available at the time. The finished result was a long, slim aircraft that earned the nickname 'The Flaming Pencil.'
From the outset, the Bristol 188 encountered significant issues. Its fuel tanks struggled to hold fuel and often leaked during flight, which severely curtailed its operational time. Piloting the aircraft was also no easy feat. The 188 required a takeoff speed of 480 kilometers per hour (300 mph), an unusually high speed for any aircraft. To get airborne, 'The Flaming Pencil' demanded a very long runway, which only exacerbated the leaking fuel issue. Test pilot Godfrey Auty, who flew the 188, was given the tongue-in-cheek award of 'most likely to eject' by his fellow test pilots. Ultimately, the Bristol 188 failed to reach Mach 2 as required, rendering the entire project pointless. Engineers suggested several fixes, but by then, the RAF had invested £20 million in the doomed plane, and the government ultimately scrapped the program.
6. McDonnell XF-85 Goblin
For many years, various air forces around the world attempted to create parasite fighters. The concept was that bombers could carry small fighter planes that would detach over enemy territory, engage intercepting planes, and then return to dock with the mother ship to fly back home. Nearly all efforts to develop a functional parasite fighter were unsuccessful. The Soviet Zveno system in World War II was the only exception. Undeterred by past failures, the United States Air Force (USAF) attempted their own version with the XF-85 Goblin.
The Goblin was a tiny, peculiar aircraft that resembled a compressed F-86 Sabre. To save weight, McDonnell stripped away all non-essential components from the fuselage, leaving only basic flight controls and avionics. The aircraft was carried into the sky by a modified B-29 bomber, and if the tests proved successful, it would be adapted to larger bombers like the B-36 for defensive missions over Soviet targets.
Unfortunately, the XF-85 turned out to be a massive failure. While stable, it lacked the necessary performance capabilities for its mission. Armed only with four .50-caliber machine guns and powered by a small engine, the Goblin was easily outgunned and outmaneuvered by Soviet aircraft. Additionally, the aircraft's docking system proved disastrous. During the first test flight, pilot Edwin Schoch failed to catch the trapeze mechanism of the B-29, resulting in a collision that shattered his canopy and tore off his helmet. Schoch was forced to make an emergency crash landing on a dry lake bed, as the XF-85 was not equipped with landing gear. Due to its poor performance and the difficulties in docking, the USAF scrapped the XF-85 and abandoned the parasite fighter concept, moving on to other impractical ideas. None of those worked either.
5. Baade 152
While Germany led the way in jet-powered aircraft development during World War II, the destruction of the German aviation industry and its slow recovery after the war put the country behind other world powers in the race for postwar jet aviation. Although the first jet airliner took to the skies in 1949, it wasn’t until 1956 that German engineers began to develop their own. The Baade 152 was conceived by former East German engineers from the Junkers company, marking a significant step in aviation history—but it was far from a great aircraft.
The Baade 152 was based on bomber concepts that Junkers engineers had worked on in the late 1940s, which meant that it didn’t have the sleek, efficient design of a typical airliner. Instead, it featured a high-wing configuration and unusual center-line landing gear with outrigger wheels at the wing tips, similar to the American B-47 bomber. These design choices were suitable for military bombers but highly impractical for a passenger jet, as the configuration left very little room in the fuselage for seating.
On the second test flight, the Baade 152 prototype crashed, killing the entire crew. The engineers made major revisions to the second prototype, overhauling the landing gear configuration and modifying the engine fairing. However, after three flights, the team discovered a critical flaw: during steep descents, the fuel lines would fail, causing the engines to cut out. Testing was halted, although 20 airframes were already under construction. By 1961, the project was abandoned as East Germany ceased the program, and the chief engineers defected to the West. The state airline switched to flying a Soviet design, effectively ending the East German aviation industry. The 152 remains East Germany's only indigenous aircraft.
4. Tupolev Tu-144
In the 1960s and 1970s, supersonic airliners were the cutting edge of aviation. The British and French developed the famous Concorde, while the Soviets produced the nearly identical Tu-144. When the Concorde entered service, the U.S. began preliminary work on a supersonic airliner that was never completed. Of the two supersonic airliners in service, the Tu-144 was unquestionably the inferior model. In fact, it stands as one of the most disastrous airplanes ever mass-produced.
The Tu-144 made its first flight two months before the Concorde. Despite their strikingly similar appearance, the two aircraft were radically different in terms of engine configuration and flight controls. This led to various conspiracy theories, with some speculating that the Concorde team intentionally allowed the Soviets to steal their blueprints, embedding major design flaws. Regardless, the Tu-144 was distinct enough to be considered its own aircraft.
From the start, the Tu-144 was plagued with problems. The first passenger prototype suffered a widely publicized crash at the 1973 Paris Air Show. Despite this, the Soviets proceeded with the project and began commercial service. After just a few flights, it became clear that two airframes were at risk of catastrophic structural failure, and many others suffered from extremely poor reliability. On several flights, 22 out of 24 primary systems failed while airborne, prompting Soviet authorities to limit the number of passengers per flight to just 70-80 in case of a potential crash.
The Tu-144 was so flawed that the Soviets reached out to Western aerospace companies for assistance in resolving its issues. After just 50 commercial flights, Aeroflot ceased passenger service, and the aircraft was relegated to cargo transport duties. Another 50 flights later, Aeroflot grounded all remaining airframes. Interestingly, NASA later purchased a Tu-144 for use as a test vehicle in supersonic airliner research. In this role, the Tu-144 performed its duties effectively.
3. Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig
Looking at this aircraft, it’s easy to see just how hazardous it was. The Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig, affectionately known as the 'Flying Bedstead,' was designed to test the viability of VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft. While it may not appear impressive, the Flying Bedstead was essentially just two jet engines strapped to a small frame. It lacked any inherent stability. Rolls-Royce opted not to install a fuselage, wings, or control surfaces—just engines, fuel tanks, and a pilot sitting on top.
The Flying Bedstead's two jet engines employed thrust vectoring for control. However, the early engines had poor throttle response, which forced the pilot to predict engine adjustments seconds in advance. This made the aircraft almost impossible to manage, as quick adjustments to engine power were unfeasible. Testing was initially done while tethered, as Rolls-Royce deemed it too dangerous to fly untethered.
Finally, untethered tests began, but it became evident that the Flying Bedstead's VTOL technique was unworkable. The aircraft was unwieldy and extremely difficult to handle. Tragedy struck in 1957 when the Flying Bedstead rolled over, crushing the pilot, who had only a basic roll cage for protection. After this fatal accident, Rolls-Royce abandoned the project and turned to explore other VTOL engine designs, which would later contribute to the Harrier's development.
2. De Havilland Comet
The De Havilland Comet, which launched in 1949, marked a leap into the future for the United Kingdom. This long-anticipated airliner dazzled the public with its sleek design and innovative technology. As the world’s first jet-powered airliner, the Comet promised a revolutionary travel experience, offering unmatched speed and comfort. Its arrival thrilled the public, and British airlines were eager to introduce it to their fleets.
However, the Comet was ahead of its time. Engineers lacked sufficient understanding of jet airliner design, and this misstep ultimately led to its downfall, resulting in the loss of many lives. The first accident occurred in 1952 when a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) flight failed to take off and ran off the runway. While no passengers were harmed, the aircraft was permanently damaged. In 1953, another flight in Pakistan suffered a similar fate, but this time, the aircraft collided with an embankment, claiming the lives of all 11 passengers aboard. This marked the first fatal jetliner accident. As De Havilland investigated the issue, another tragic incident occurred when a Comet disintegrated mid-air during takeoff in India, killing all 43 on board.
In 1954, just over a year later, catastrophe struck twice. On January 10, a BOAC flight experienced explosive midair decompression and plummeted into the sea, claiming 35 lives. Then, in April, another Comet went down in the Mediterranean, resulting in 23 fatalities. The Comet production line was immediately halted as investigations rushed to uncover the cause. Initial theories suggested sabotage, but further examination revealed that the issue was with the passenger windows. The original Comets featured square windows, which were prone to fatigue at high speeds, leading to fuselage buckling. It was a simple yet fatal design flaw that sealed the fate of early Comet flights.
In a frantic response, De Havilland redesigned the Comet with circular windows, but by then, the damage was irreversible. The crashes had already tarnished the Comet’s reputation, and prolonged investigations allowed American aircraft manufacturers to close the gap in jetliner design. Unfortunately, the Comet’s legacy was more about teaching the world how not to design jetliners and helping to refine the practice of investigating airline crashes.
1. Dassault Balzac V And Mirage III V
One thing is clear from this list: VTOL fighter planes are generally poor ideas. While the British were refining the Harrier in the late 1960s, the French embarked on their own VTOL fighter project. Instead of designing an entirely new airframe like the British, the French decided to modify the Mirage III fighter with lift jet engines. The concept seemed sound, but it ended in disaster.
To gain experience with a lift jet design, Dassault modified one of the original Mirage III prototypes by adding eight lift jet engines. The aircraft, named the Balzac V, showed early promise when it successfully transitioned from vertical takeoff to horizontal flight in March 1963. However, disaster struck a few months later during a landing when the Balzac V flipped over, killing the test pilot. Dassault rebuilt the prototype and continued testing, but in 1965, an American pilot on exchange conducted a test flight, only to perish when the lift engines failed and he was unable to eject in time.
Despite the fatalities, the project carried on with the development of the Mirage III V, a modified Mirage III airframe equipped with lift engines, similar to the Balzac V. Like its predecessor, the Mirage III V began on a promising note, completing successful vertical takeoff and landing flights and achieving Mach 2 during horizontal flight. However, these two accomplishments were never achieved in the same flight. Although the aircraft showed early success, disaster struck once more when the Mirage III V prototype crashed. Thankfully, the pilot survived this time, but Dassault concluded that the VTOL concept was not proving successful and shifted focus to other projects.
