Modern-Aviation

This is almost definitely a helicopter and was evaluated by the US Army as part of their plans to kill their own soldiers in new and imaginative ways. Eschewing such fripperies as a fuselage, seats, or actual controls, the HZ-1 was steered by the ‘pilot’ leaning in the direction he wanted to go.

For those wondering if they can build one in their own garage, the most complicated bit, the engine, was a converted Mercury outboard motor so the answer is probably yes. This drove two 15’ diameter contra-rotating rotor blades that, in two fingers to occupational health and safety, were placed below the sacrificial offering.

In the defence of the HZ-1, in trials, soldiers learnt to fly it with only twenty minutes of instruction before speeding across the landscape at up to 75mph. Although, with a range of only 15 miles it’s not immediately apparent that the turn of speed was particularly useful.

In the cons column, the HZ-1 suffered two (apparently non-fatal) accidents where the contra-rotating blades clipped each other and stopped working. More worryingly, NACA was unable to repeat the phenomena in their wind tunnel, proving that even rocket scientists don’t understand helicopters. Combined with a moment of sanity, the US Army realised there wasn’t a lot of utility to the personal helicopter idea, which led to the end of the programme.