My malicious mind was thinking of how much the human race has to thank experimentation due to the things we have learned from it. Even in the most questionable, anti-ethical experiments, there was always something new to comprehend. For instance, everything we know about pneumonia and hypothermia is thanks to the tortures made in Japanese concentration camps in Korea during WW2. Another example is the best-ever anatomy book that is forbidden almost everywhere because of how disgusting its background is.
However, as this is an aeronautical blog, I wanted to talk about the weirdest or even, least successful studies. Here are the not-so-top aviation experiments…
First of all, I want to ask all of you if you know what a parachute is. I’m sure y’all are familiar with its purpose. Weirdly, this is something the USSR did not seem to know in the 1930s as, during WW2, paratroopers were launched without chutes directly into the snow in order to show that it was possible to carry out such operations.
As a result, this experiment led to an impressive 30% ratio of casualties; people were either killed or injured during the experiment (broken ribs and spines mainly). However, the numbers left the USSR undaunted: the tests continued, and people did it anyway; jumping from low and slow-flying planes became a common practice, especially in what comes to infiltration and partisan operations. I guess they did not let physics be an impediment to their dreams…
For the second entrance of this list, we have the mighty, overpowered, and…seasonal? Ice Aircraft Carrier. Yup, it actually happened: the British Royal Navy aimed to create a pykrete (a mixture made from ice and wood pulps) made carrier. In fact, a successful prototype was made in Lake Alberta with promising results. However, the rising costs and the end of the mid-Atlantic Gap, which was the issue it aimed to solve, led to the cancellation of the project.
If ever completed, the project Habbakuk (funny real name) carrier would have been the largest aircraft carrier ever, with 600 meters of length would be much larger than any US’ today’s super-carrier.
Finally, we come to my favorite, the very known pigeon-guided missiles. Because yes! You can train a pigeon to pick certain images to receive a treat, so you could make them guide a bomb towards an enemy ship if it was displayed on a touchscreen. This was actually possible and somehow successful; however, electronics advanced rapidly and surpassed the pigeon evolution just in time not to blow any brave patriotic bird.
