THE STORY OF THE INFLATOPLANE

In 1956, one company set out to redefine what the air in aeroplanes meant. Goodyear, known for their iconic blimps and car tyres, developed an inflatable aeroplane, small enough to fit inside the back of the family station wagon and ready to fly in just five minutes. They called it the Inflatoplane. By all accounts, it flew well. The military even considered using them to rescue pilots by dropping Inflato planes behind enemy lines so stranded pilots could fly themselves back to safety.

The idea of an inflatable aeroplane began as a way to make aircraft safer. In 1931, an American inventor, named Tyler McDaniel, set out to prove that he could build a more or less crashproof plane. Constructed almost entirely out of rubber, McDaniel’s glider could hit the ground at high speed without disintegrating on impact, leaving the aircraft and its pilot relatively unharmed. McDaniel was convinced that inflatable planes were the future. Still, he needed more money before he could fully develop the concept.

Luckily Goodyear had recently created a material called Airmat, a rubberised fabric.

In the 1950s, engineers at Goodyear developed a new kind of composite, a layer of rubber sandwiched between two layers of fabric and coated in neoprene. When inflated, the composite would be fastened together by thousands of nylon strands, making Airmat one of the highest strength-weight ratios of any construction material worldwide. With it, Goodyear could now design an inflatable plane that looked less like a wobbly balloon and more like an actual aeroplane. They drastically improved aerodynamic performance and, throughout the 1950s, Goodyear developed a series of inflatable aircraft designs, each improving on speed range and manoeuvrability. They even made a version that could carry two people at once. Goodyear was convinced their plane could save lives.

During the Korean War of the early 1950s, hundreds of US airmen were shot down behind enemy lines. Many survived but few had any real hope of being rescued. Only 10% of pilots shot down during the war would meet search and rescue. Yet Inflatoplanes, small enough to pack up inside a pod and drop from the wing of an aircraft or be stuffed into a crate and shoved up the back of an aeroplane, could be airdropped to stranded pilots without having to risk the lives of search and rescue teams. In addition, for a down pilot, getting one ready for flight would be a breeze. Empty Inflatorplanes weighed just 200 pounds, and the pilot would only need to uncurl the wings and begin inflating the aircraft with a hand pump. Once inflated halfway, he could switch on the engine, which would take over and expand the plane to its full size. Thanks to the rigidity of Airmat, an Inflatoplane needed just seven PSI of pressure to keep its shape (a lot less than a car tyre), which meant it could be inflated in just five minutes.

With 20 gallons of fuel, an Inflatoplane had a range of over 600 kilometres and could remain airborne for more than six hours. By most accounts, it flew pretty well, with easy and predictable handling, and a cruising speed of 100 kilometres an hour. Taking on enemy fire in a blow-up rubber plane would give a whole new meaning to depressurisation. Fortunately, the Inflatoplane’s engine would continually top up air pressure meaning it could take a few hits from small arms fire in remaining airworthy.

Goodyear’s clever piece of engineering also captured the public’s imagination, with newspapers speculating that inflatable planes might one day be made available to the average Joe, as an ideal kit for vacationers, hunters and hobbyists. An aircraft small and light enough to pack up inside the family station wagon!

In 1959, the navy and army received ten planes for evaluation, and it took only a short time for problems to emerge. In April, a Goodyear test pilot pulled up too quickly, causing a wing to fold over and strike the propeller. The plane soon deflated into a mess of free-falling rubber. Fortunately, the pilot could bail out but, less than two months later, an army pilot wasn’t so lucky. One of the control cables jammed this time, causing a wing to fold, and the pilot never made it out. The two crashes raised concerns about the safety of inflatable aircraft.

Still, even before the losses, there were already severe doubts about whether the concept made sense. In the open fields of Europe, a down pilot might find 300 feet of space needed to take off. However, in the thick mountainous jungles of Vietnam, this was not likely, and the prospect of a pilot shot down in a high-flying fast jet, having to fly back through enemy territory in a slow and low flying inflatable plane was questionable. As one army general said, “What good was a plane that could be brought down using a well-aimed bow and arrow?”

While that claim wasn’t technically valid, it didn’t matter because, by the late 1950s, rescue team operations had become far more sophisticated and rescue helicopters could also fly longer distances to reach stranded pilots. It meant there was little prospect of selling the Inflatoplanes to the military, so Goodyear slowly let the air out of the programme after 1962. They never built another inflatable plane again and, while tests continued in 1973, the programme was officially cancelled soon after.