Links to Cool Stuff
Automotive engines have been tried in several airplanes but with the possible exception of the Mercedes-Benz diesel engines manufactured by Thielert they haven’t been successful in production aircraft. The experimental market is a different story, This article in Ridelust talks about engines by Porsche (unsuccessful), Subaru (successful), Mazda (successful) and others.
Designers have experimented with flying wings, flying saucers, and circular wings among other ideas. This site has collected some interesting examples.
Even in the early days of aviation, designers were dreaming of building bigger and bigger airplanes. Most never got off the ground, but the Russians built some monsters in the 30’s like the Tupolev ANT-20 and the KA-7. These and more are featured at Dark Roasted Blend.
Over 100,000 aircraft related photos online at the SDASM Archives’ photostream on Flickr.