2Likes
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Mystery Plane in Polish Backyard - Now Identified
During our recent family holiday on the Polish island of Wolin, we happened to drive by a backyard filled with scrap of all sorts of things, some aircraft wrecks among them.
This is, e.g., a decommissioned ex-German Army Alouette II helicopter:
But it was a much more unusual plane which caught my attention as I cannot seem to find out what type of airplane it is:
The pictures were taken from the road. We rang the bell, but no one answered, so we were unable to ascertain the type of airplane, or even its country of origin. While it looks old enough to date to the Cold War era, the ex-German Alouette next to it goes to show that the plane in question need not necessarily be an Eastern Bloc type.
The mystery airplane has a set of distinctive features which may help in its identification: a central fuselage, above which appears to be a single jet engine, topped by straight wings (in the foreground on some of the following pictures). Twin booms extend from the wings to the large-sized twin vertical stabilizers (apprently inverted), with what looks like the horizontal stabilizer missing. Somewhat unusually, there are very large vertical structures underneath both wings where the tail boom intersects the wing.
Let us take a step-by-step tour of the plane:
This picture shows the unusual vertical structures underneath the wings:
The fuselage, topped by the jet engine which appears to connect the fuselage with the wing. Note the dismantled straight wings in the foreground:
A view of the front end with the cabin door …
… and a more detailed view of the cockpit. Note the slanted front end of the vertical underwing structure in the far right of the picture:
The jet intake on top of the central fuselage … I think this is a full-sized jet engine, not an APU-type of secondary engine:
Rear end of the central fuselage (I could not tell whether there are clamshell doors, or another type of opening at the fuselage rear end), the jet exhaust, and the two vertical structures underneath the wings. Note the jagged front end of the port vertical structure, the lower part of which is visible in the cockpit shot above :
Another shot of the same center section, showing the starboard boom assembly and its integration with the vertical underwing structure:
This appears to be the port main landing gear extending from the underwing structure. For a while I was thinking the plane might be an amphibian, but the underside of the fuselage front end does look quite conventional …:
From the 8 o’clock position the layout of the empennage is clearly visible. The port tail boom is missing:
A close-up of the large vertical stabilizers with what I think are attachment points for the missing horizontal stabilizer. I think the stabilizers are placed front-to-back, and perhaps upside down:
Another view of the vertical stabilizers, the starboard tail boom and the starboard underwing structure:
And finally, a shot from the rear showing the box-like shape formed by the wings, the vertical structures and the large vertical stabilizers. The port tail boom is disconnected from the vertical stabilizers:
Any help to identify the airplane will be much appreciated!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by wmaker
