Skip to content
aircraftfun
Menu
Design a PlanePaper PlanesStoriesShopGamesAbout
Hangar stories

True airplanes that look made up.

Captain keeps the dates. Co-Pilot asks the weird questions. Wingman names the shapes. These are hangar stories — real planes, then a fold you can try in the hallway.

  1. Ryan X-13 Vertijet second prototype 54-1620 hanging vertically beside its yellow dual-role transport and launch trailer, about to hook onAges 8-14

    The Jet That Hung From a Hook

    Ryan’s X-13 Vertijet was a jet that took off standing up — then hung itself on a trailer cable to come home. Two built. Edwards. Then two museums.

    Read the story →
  2. NASA Flight Research Center XB-70A No. 1 in cruise over mountains, white delta wing with wingtips droopedAges 8-14

    The Plane That Folded Its Wingtips

    North American’s XB-70 Valkyrie was a Mach 3 bomber that never became a bomber. At speed it folded its wingtips down — about 65 degrees — and rode its own shock wave. Six engines. Two jets. One museum.

    Read the story →
  3. NASA Ames-Dryden X-29 No. 2 in flight over the desert, forward-swept wings and cloth tufts on the surfaces clearly visibleAges 8-14

    The Plane With Wings On Backwards

    The Grumman X-29 wore its wings the wrong way — tips pointed forward, not back. Computers poked the nose about forty times a second. Two jets. Ames-Dryden. Then two museums.

    Read the story →
  4. NASA Ames-Dryden AD-1 research jet in flight over the desert with its wing pivoted to 60 degrees, the maximum sweepAges 8-14

    The Plane With a Twisty Wing

    NASA’s Ames-Dryden AD-1 wore one long wing on a pin. Takeoff looked ordinary. Then the wing twisted — one tip forward, one tip back — up to 60 degrees. Seventy-nine flights. Then a museum.

    Read the story →
  5. Northrop HL-10 lifting body (NASA 804) parked on the ramp at NASA’s Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, 1966Ages 8-14

    The Plane With Almost No Wings

    NASA’s Northrop HL-10 made lift with a fat silver body instead of ordinary wings. A B-52 dropped it 37 times. It hit Mach 1.86 — then the Space Shuttle still chose real wings.

    Read the story →
  6. Bartini-Beriev VVA-14 (CCCP-19172) on display at the Central Air Force Museum, Monino, RussiaAges 8-14

    The Plane That Wanted to Hover, Skim, and Fly High

    Robert Bartini’s VVA-14 was a Soviet amphibian with three jobs: rise straight up, cruise like an airplane, and skim the sea on a cushion of air. The hover engines never arrived. The survivor still sits at Monino.

    Read the story →
  7. Gossamer Albatross II in flight during slow-speed research at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, 20 March 1980Ages 8-12

    The Pedal Plane That Crossed the Channel

    On 12 June 1979 Bryan Allen pedaled a 70-pound Mylar airplane from England to France — no engine, just legs, a canard, and almost three hours of careful flying.

    Read the story →
  8. Goodyear GA-447 Inflatoplane during ONR flight testing, late 1950sAges 8-12

    The Airplane You Inflate Like a Pool Toy

    Goodyear’s Inflatoplane was a real rubber airplane that packed into a box, puffed up in about five minutes, and flew on a tiny engine — less air pressure than a car tire.

    Read the story →
  9. Hughes H-4 Hercules, the Spruce Goose, on the water at Long BeachAges 8-12

    The Spruce Goose That Almost Didn’t Fly

    Howard Hughes’s giant wooden flying boat flew only once — for about a mile — and still holds the record for biggest wingspan of any airplane that ever left the water.

    Read the story →
  10. Blohm & Voss BV 141 with the glass crew pod on one side and the engine boom on the otherAges 8-12

    The Airplane Built Sideways on Purpose

    The Blohm & Voss BV 141 put the crew in a glass pod on one side and the engine on the other — looking like a broken plane that somehow flew straight.

    Read the story →
  11. Granville Gee Bee Model R-1 Super Sportster NR2100 with race number 11Ages 12-16

    The Flying Barrel That Won Air Races

    The Gee Bee R-1 was basically an engine with tiny wings and a teardrop body — so short and round pilots said it was like riding a bullet.

    Read the story →
  12. Northrop YB-49 flying wing in flight with landing gear downAges 12-16

    The Flying Wing With No Tail

    Northrop’s YB-49 was all wing — no fuselage “tube,” no normal tail — a 1940s preview of today’s B-2 shape.

    Read the story →
  13. Dornier Do X twelve-engine flying boat over Naval Air Station NorfolkAges 8-12

    The Flying Boat With Twelve Engines

    Dornier’s Do X had twelve engines (six pull, six push) and once carried more than 150 people — a floating hotel with wings.

    Read the story →
  14. Boeing X-48 blended-wing-body research aircraft on a dry lake bedAges 12-16

    The Blended-Wing Mini Jet That Looked Like a Manta Ray

    NASA and Boeing’s X-48 was a small unmanned blended-wing-body jet — a flying experiment in quieter, greener airliners of the future.

    Read the story →
  15. NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong standing beside the black X-15 rocket planeAges 12-16

    The Rocket Plane That Touched Space

    Dropped from a B-52, the X-15 blasted past Mach 6 and flew high enough that some pilots earned astronaut wings — in an airplane.

    Read the story →
  16. Martin JRM Mars flying boat Philippine Mars on the waterAges 8-12

    The Giant Flying Boat That Became a Firebomber

    Martin Mars flying boats were huge Navy transports; survivors later scooped lake water and dropped it on forest fires like airborne elephants.

    Read the story →
  17. NASA Ingenuity Mars helicopter on the surface of Jezero CraterAges 8-12

    The Tiny Helicopter That Flew on Mars

    Ingenuity was designed for five flights on Mars — and kept going for dozens, proving rotors can fly in air thinner than Earth’s mountaintops.

    Read the story →
  18. NASA Helios Prototype solar flying wing in flightAges 12-16

    The Solar Wing That Flew Near the Edge of Space

    NASA’s Helios was a giant flying wing powered by sunlight — so light and long it set records for altitude without burning a drop of jet fuel.

    Read the story →
  19. Avro 671 Rota Mk.I Cierva C.30 autogyro with RAF markingsAges 8-12

    The Autogyro That Looked Like a Plane With a Windmill

    Cierva’s C.30 (Avro Rota) used an unpowered spinning rotor for lift and a propeller for push — neither airplane nor helicopter, but both.

    Read the story →
  20. Avro Canada VZ-9AV Avrocar disk aircraft on museum displayAges 8-12

    The Real Flying Saucer That Barely Left the Ground

    The Avrocar looked like a UFO on purpose — a circular “air jeep” that hovered on a cushion of air but never became the sky-car of sci-fi dreams.

    Read the story →
  21. Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee flying platform at the Hiller Aviation MuseumAges 8-12

    The Flying Platform You Stood On Like a Surfboard

    Hiller’s VZ-1 Pawnee was a ducted-fan platform — the pilot stood upright and steered by leaning, like a flying skateboard from the 1950s.

    Read the story →
  22. Fairey Rotodyne compound gyrodyne in conventional flight modeAges 12-16

    The Airliner With Tip-Jets on Its Rotor

    Fairey’s Rotodyne took off like a helicopter using roaring tip-jets on the rotor, then cruised like a plane — a loud idea ahead of its time.

    Read the story →
  23. Bell XV-15 tiltrotor research aircraft with rotors tilted for takeoffAges 12-16

    The Plane Whose Rotors Flip Like Wrists

    NASA’s Bell XV-15 proved tiltrotors work: rotors point up to hover, then tilt forward to fly fast like a plane — the grandparent of the Osprey idea.

    Read the story →
  24. Lilienthal Normal-Segelapparat replica at the Musée de l’AirAges 8-12

    The Birdman Who Taught the World to Glide

    Before the Wrights’ powered flight, Otto Lilienthal leapt from hills in hang gliders he built himself — and published the data that taught others to fly.

    Read the story →
  25. Boeing Condor UAV suspended at the Hiller Aviation MuseumAges 12-16

    The Giant Robotic Condor With a Football-Field Wingspan

    Boeing’s Condor was a huge piston-powered research UAV with a ~200-foot wingspan — built to stay aloft for days, not to chase toys.

    Read the story →
  26. Kaman K-MAX intermeshing-rotor cargo helicopter on the tarmacAges 12-16

    The Helicopter That Flies Without a Pilot

    The Kaman K-MAX is an intermeshing “syncopter” cargo hauler that can fly unmanned — delivering loads with no one in the cockpit.

    Read the story →
  27. Piasecki Airgeep II hovering over a test fieldAges 8-12

    The Flying Jeep With Twin Duct Fans

    Piasecki’s Airgeep looked like a Jeep that forgot wheels — twin ducted fans in a frame, meant to hop over battlefields (it mostly hopped over test fields).

    Read the story →
  28. Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter carrying a prefabricated houseAges 8-12

    The Helicopter That Carried a Whole House

    The Sikorsky Skycrane is basically a flying crane — a skinny fuselage and huge rotor that once lifted an entire house through the air.

    Read the story →
  29. Convair F-106A 58-0787 after it belly-landed itself near Big Sandy, MontanaAges 12-16

    The Jet That Landed Itself

    On 2 February 1970 a U.S. Air Force F-106 entered a flat spin. The pilot punched out. The empty jet recovered, flew on, and parked itself in a snowy Montana field.

    Read the story →
  30. Convair XFY-1 Pogo BuNo 138649 taking off at Naval Auxiliary Air Station Brown Field, November 1954Ages 12-16

    The Fighter That Sat on Its Tail

    Convair built a Navy jet that parked pointing at the sky, took off like a bottle rocket, then asked the pilot to land by looking over his shoulder.

    Read the story →
  31. A B-52H Stratofortress of the 307th Bomb Wing in flight over desert terrainAges 12-16

    The Airplane Older Than the Pilots

    The last B-52H left the factory on 26 October 1962. In 2026 it is still flying, and a lot of the people in the seats were not born when it was.

    Read the story →
  32. Stipa-Caproni flying barrel on the ground in the 1930sAges 8-14

    The Plane That Was a Tube

    In 1932 Italy built a wooden airplane whose whole body was a hollow barrel, with the engine and propeller spinning inside like a secret.

    Read the story →
  33. Vought V-173 flying pancake in flightAges 8-14

    The Dinner-Plate Airplane That Almost Hovered

    Charles Zimmerman built a wood-and-canvas disk that sat nose-high like a plate on a stand, then flew so slowly people in Connecticut reported a UFO.

    Read the story →
  34. NASA X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft in flightAges 8-14

    The Jet That Breaks the Sound Barrier Without Waking the Dog

    In June 2026 a skinny NASA jet went supersonic over the California desert — and the chase plane made more noise than the star of the show.

    Read the story →
  35. McDonnell XF-85 Goblin on a yellow ground dollyAges 8-13

    The Little Jet That Lived in a Bomber

    McDonnell built a jet with no wheels, a hook on its back, and a plan to live inside a bomber — then catch a trapeze to get home.

    Read the story →
  36. no photo — still flying
    Ages 6-13

    The Giant That Came Back (and It Isn’t a Blimp)

    A helium rigid airship the length of a city block is flying again in 2026 — the first giant of its kind in the sky since 1939.

    Read the story →
  37. Caproni Ca.60 nine-wing flying boat on Lake Maggiore, 1921Ages 8-13

    The Nine-Wing Flying Boat That Tried to Be an Ocean Liner

    In 1921 Italy launched a nine-wing flying boat meant to carry 100 people across an ocean. It hopped twice over a lake. The second hop ended in a stall.

    Read the story →
  38. Lun-class ekranoplan on the beach in Dagestan.Ages 8-14

    The Plane That Skimmed Like a Skimming Stone

    Spies named it the Caspian Sea Monster. It was not a sea monster. It was a 92-meter flying boat that never really left the water.

    Read the story →