inflation and aviation....

Did anyone else catch 'Ripley's' tonight? I thought that was a bit bizarre... the "inflat-o-plane", or whatever they called it.

For those who didn't see, they showed some archival footage of some kind of Navy invention which was a small airplane that was, yep, you guessed it, inflatable. The entire thing was a jumble of wire and rubberized cloth that took less air pressure to inflate than your standard car tire. The engine was about the only thing that wasn't inflatable, and was attached to the plane after inflation. They said it could take off from land or water, and even showed it in flight. The strangest thing was that it was a basic monoplane design, and not a "raft with wings" like the new ultralight they have out. The pilot actually sat inside of a cockpit, and controled the sucker with what looked like a bunch of ripcords roughly arranged like airplane controls.

Any more info on these? They look... fun.

[stevedrew]

Air Gecko,

Wouldn't be too bad to pancake in that kind of aircraft.

Steve Drew

It should have been inflated with helium
which would eliminate buying the farm in
case of engine failure.

Air: Saw that aerial gizmo three years ago on the History Channel, when they had a program on special aircraft. That bird could really fly, and was intended for emergency use for downed pilots. It actually came with a gas supply. Try a surplus shop. They may get a line one one.