The Polish JN-1 Żabuś II was a tailless glider. An all-wooden design of Jarosław Naleszkiewicz equipped with an egg-shaped cabin for its single pilot. First flown in the summer of 1932, it had only three months of active life followed before it was damaged beyond repair. Painting by Robert Firszt.

Posted by MyDogGoldi@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 41 comments

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particlegun@reddit

In the first image, it looks like something from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

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ALWanders@reddit

Wow, that is fascinating, doesn't look like it should work, but then I know F all about aeronautical engineering.

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ManaMagestic@reddit

It's basically a t-tail...which is about as much as I can contribute.

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LigerSixOne@reddit

It’s actually basically as far from a T-tail as it can get. A T-tails tail looks like a T.

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nugohs@reddit

More like a H-Tail, and a very early precursor to the TIE-Fighter.

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TheLandOfConfusion@reddit

But all that took place a long time ago…

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itsmejak78_2@reddit

From all the weird wings I've seen I'm not surprised at all I'm not surprised this flew to be honest

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I doubt it was that stable, but it looks like the center of gravity is pushed pretty far forward. Think of it like a throwing dart with all the weight in the front, and the airfoil trailing behind for stability.

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Double-Birthday-6748@reddit

The centre of gravity is not really far forward, it's barely in front of the wing itself. I hate flying wings but this is especially bad for instability. They're almost as infuriatingly idiotic as hot air balloons.

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MasterofLego@reddit

Yup that's why the B21 is still a flying wing

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theArcticChiller@reddit

If there's one thing stealth aircraft hate it's balloons

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cmperry51@reddit

Reflex curve airfoil? The Pioneer tailless glider had that, IIRC

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gardenfella@reddit

You can see the reflex curve in the second picture, towards the trailing edge of the wing root.

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Mike312@reddit

I don't think it's actually straight, the drawing just looks like it.

The second picture, you can see the far wing is perpendicular to the camera, but the close wing sweeps back pretty steeply.

Still, probably not enough angle, hence the issues they had with it.

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James_TF2@reddit

I just bought a 1/72 scale model kit for this funny thing. Can’t wait to add it to my ceiling display.

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diogenesNY@reddit

This fits into a personal favorite category of r/WeirdWings :

Specifically aircraft you look at and say "Woah! That thing actually flew...?"

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ventus1b@reddit

This looks like the grandfather of the AK-X by Akaflieg Karlsruhe.

https://akaflieg-karlsruhe.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Dreiseitenansicht-768x473.png

https://akaflieg-karlsruhe.de/en/ak-x_en/

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recitegod@reddit

This thing with a modern flying computer... Sign me in. Even more so if it is a bit forward or rear swept. It looks so good.

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RadiantFuture25@reddit

this looks like it would be unstable in all 3 axis so you fall out of the sky in any of the 3 directions, nice. maybe the poor view forwards might be a good thing?

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Cessnaporsche01@reddit

Idk, it looks reeeeeeal roll-stable. Just, like, frighteningly unstable in yaw and especially pitch.

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BlacksmithNZ@reddit

So funny to read that after I already posted wondering how pitch was controlled.

I mean we look at a single picture and suspect it would be "hard to control, being oversensitive in pitch both via elevator control and centre of gravity position"

How do people building and worse still, climbing into this and flying, not think the same?

And .. what 'elevator control'? Don't the wings have ailerons and not elevators?

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Syrdon@reddit

How do people building and worse still, climbing into this and flying, not think the same?

You've got 90 years of airplane development on them. They were building this in 1932. The Wright brothers were less than 20 years earlier than this thing was built (and crashed, and abandoned...). This thing is still in the era of people trying to understand how planes worked, and information distribution was not nearly as good as it is now.

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BlacksmithNZ@reddit

I thought after WW1, aircraft design had advanced a lot. At the same time as this, Polish designers were producing the RWD-6 which was quite advanced.

Amateur designers would have read books and magazines, and built models to test theories - like the Horton Brothers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horten_H.I

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Vinyl-addict@reddit

Yeah fuck this thing, seems insanely sketchy. Real gliders are sketchy enough feeling as is.

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tommygun1688@reddit

Naaa, gliders aren't that sketchy.

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BlacksmithNZ@reddit

Yaw.. maybe the wing tip rudders work

But pitch?

Without a tail to provide leverage, this thing would just dive or stall depending on CoG, wouldn't it? Does the pilot just lean forward/back to change the angle of attack?

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MyDogGoldi@reddit (OP)

Image one source

Image two source