Can you imagine an airplane that you could inflate like a balloon? Well, the engineers at Goodyear did it before you, in the 1950s, when they created the GA-468 Inflatoplane. This experimental aircraft, which can still be seen at the military aviation museum in Alabama, was conceived as a rescue tool that could be parachuted behind enemy lines. As incredible as it may sound, this rubber duck with pretensions was capable of flying while carrying up to 109 kilograms of payload.
Sometimes, what at first glance seems like a completely delusional idea can give rise to a completely functional artifact. A good example of this is the inflatable plane GA-468 Inflatoplane that the American company Goodyear built in 1956. Perhaps inspired by the balloons that had crossed the skies in previous decades, or trying to create a new market for its rubber-based products, the company developed an inflatable airplane whose main function would be to serve the military forces of that country as an additional instrument in rescue tasks: when a group of men was trapped behind enemy lines and rescue by conventional means was not possible, boxes with the necessary GA-468s would be parachuted in, and the soldiers in trouble would simply inflate them to fly back home.
A Bizarre But Functional Idea
We don't know exactly who came up with this concept, but it's possible to imagine the look of astonishment on the executive who first heard the revolutionary idea from an employee. Fortunately, Goodyear's management was open-minded enough to greenlight the project, and while the GA-468 Inflatoplane program remained active, at least 12 models were built. Two of them can be admired by tourists, as the company donated one to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and another to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
The GA-468 and GA-466
At least two versions of this strange vehicle were manufactured. The first, called GA-468, had room for a single passenger and could be inflated in just 5 minutes. The air pressure inside the “balloon-plane” was about 170 kPa, giving it enough rigidity to fly. The GA-468's fuselage measured about 6 meters in length and had a wingspan—the total length of its wings—of 6.7 meters. The “package” included a Nelson 30 kW engine and a tank with 76 liters of fuel, which could drive the plane at about 100 kilometers per hour for more than 600 kilometers. Its maximum speed was around 120 kilometers per hour, and it could take off using a runway of less than 100 meters. However, it wasn't too quick climbing, and it needed to fly at least 250 meters before reaching an altitude of 20 meters, the minimum that could be considered “safe”.
When it came to returning to the safety of solid ground, it needed about 110 meters of more or less flat runway. Despite being not much more than a thick birthday balloon with an engine (and shaped like an airplane), Goodyear assured that it was capable of flying at a maximum altitude above three thousand meters. The second available version, known as GA-466, had space for two people. Its fuselage was half a meter shorter, but its wingspan climbed to eight and a half meters, to provide the indispensable lift that kept the maximum useful load in the air: about 350 kilograms. The engine of this version was, logically, more powerful. It had a power of 45 kW and allowed the plane to fly at almost 115 kilometers per hour. The fuel consumption—higher—limited its range to just under 450 kilometers.
The Legacy of Inflatable Aircraft
Many years after the birth of the Inflatoplane, the world has taken up the idea of building inflatable aircraft. Newer, lighter and smarter materials would allow the development of wings large enough and rigid enough to satisfy the most demanding aerodynamic properties. There has even been talk of building a modern version of these devices with variable geometry wings. In any case, we can't help but marvel at the ingenuity of these pioneers, and at the courage shown by the pilots who tested the proper functioning of these machines.
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