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The life and death of France’s 1950s ‘beetle’ aircraft

In the 1950s Austrian engineer Helmut von Zborowski wanted to create a plane that could take off vertically in order to eliminate the need for a runway, so he designed an aircraft with a radical wing design — in addition to standard wings that jut out from the side, the design would utilize a round wing that surrounded the plane. Built by the French, the Coléoptère (french for beetle) struggled during initial tests — one engineer said that the initial controls were akin to “a bicyclist trying to keep his balance while he’s stopped” — but eventually managed to both take off and hover in the air, though horizontal flight proved a challenge.