Luigi Colani's improbable designs

"People will make RC aircraft of *anything,..."

IIRC, that includes a 'Snoopy Kennel', complete with helmeted pilot-pup...

After seeing that, your 'common-or-garden' modeler would probably adjourn to nearest hostelry or bar, urgently ingest enough alcohol to dim the memory...
 
So that's...

I vaguely remembered a series of SciFi books built around an innovative, morphing star-ship called, IIRC, 'The Swan'.
Hah !!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_Swan ...by Brian Stapleford.
Due 'rights' management, you'll have to eg Google for images but, IMHO, 'artists impressions' clearly drew on the Colani meme...
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FWIW, the design pictured above lacks even a flow-splitter at 'throat', would be hastily re-worked after first wind-tunnel test --If got that far-- demonstrated ghastly short-comings. Adding wattles, uh, a fin there might go some way to mitigating hilarity...
 
As pointed out by others, Colani's aircraft are nothing more than wistful fantasy born of utter ignorance. He would steal some striking image and buzzwords from the latest research, embody it in a fantasy machine and wrap it around with aerodynamic utter BS. He had a wonderful eye and as often as not the end result was stunningly original and beautiful, the best investor bait a charlatan could possibly wish for. No doubt he picked up his line in BS while at college and Douglas, but he certainly didn't pick up any aeronautical talent. I don't know what he studied at college or for how long, but at Douglas he ended up as head of the New Materials division, not exactly an aerodynamic Bauhaus.

But what puzzles me most about all this F&SF book cover art was that serious journals like Flight would report cheerfully on his latest scam, repeating his patently absurd claims in all seriousness, alongside a glamour photograph of the mock-up, or perhaps even of a lash-up rig he had "tested". The stuff he got away with, with a straight face! I'd guess that every column inch they published would have netted him another million dollars' beer money.

I just wish Hollywood had kidnapped him, he would have come to own the SF Silver Screen! Instead, he wobbled around being a reasonably successful designer in other, less technically challenging fields, until he finally passed away only a few years ago, in 2019.
 
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I know someone made a Star Trek ship out of a piano design of his-but did he do spacecraft besides his NASA work? Anyone find a lost sketchpad?
 
{ Shudder... } Even so, it looks a tad more sea-worthy than the hapless 'Rover' from original 'Lost in Space' series.

If your memory scars don't go back that far, think 'VW Dormobile Goes To Sea'. It may have been kin to 'Herbie' but, a short craft in steep seas, the ride would have been utterly ghastly...
 
steelpillow said:
As pointed out by others, Colani's aircraft are nothing more than wistful fantasy born of utter ignorance. He would steal some striking image and buzzwords from the latest research, embody it in a fantasy machine and wrap it around with aerodynamic utter BS. He had a wonderful eye and as often as not the end result was stunningly original and beautiful, the best investor bait a charlatan could possibly wish for. No doubt he picked up his line in BS while at college and Douglas, but he certainly didn't pick up any aeronautical talent. I don't know what he studied at college or for how long, but at Douglas he ended up as head of the New Materials division, not exactly an aerodynamic Bauhaus.

But what puzzles me most about all this F&SF book cover art was that serious journals like Flight would report cheerfully on his latest scam, repeating his patently absurd claims in all seriousness, alongside a glamour photograph of the mock-up, or perhaps even of a lash-up rig he had "tested". The stuff he got away with, with a straight face! I'd guess that every column inch they published would have netted him another million dollars' beer money.

I just wish Hollywood had kidnapped him, he would have come to own the SF Silver Screen! Instead, he wobbled around being a reasonably successful designer in other, less technically challenging fields, until he finally passed away only a few years ago, in 2019.
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Who, pray tell, did he ever scam?
Your screed is filled with unsupported accusations that is nowt but your opinion.
 
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jcf said:
Who, pray tell, did he ever scam?
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Two cases in point were the supersonic push-pull propeller record-breaker and the lifting-body airliner. These were so obviously untenable, yet straight-faced write-ups in journals like Flight helped persuade investors to believe his absurd claims and hand over their cash. You know, convoluted propellers that would break under centrifugal loads long before they got supersonic, grossly exaggerated area ruling in slightly the wrong place, a lifting-body expected to be aerodynamically efficient, that sort of elementary nonsense. There is not, and can never be, authoritative support for such nonsense; there is nothing to refute. I call those scams, you may choose to wrap platitudes round him.

And yes, I offer my modest opinion of these things. Opinions are by their nature unsupported, that's what distinguishes them from facts.
 
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Dozens of projects at GettyImages

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Getty Images UK. Find high resolution royalty-free images, editorial stock photos, vector art, video footage clips and stock music licensing at the richest image search photo library online.
www.gettyimages.co.uk
 

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X-39 said:
Mockup for a"Global Endurance Solar powered Stereo Photo 30m Base High Altitude Surveillance Platform", 1988.
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I think that propellers don't rotate in the right direction to oppose the vortex of wing extreme ... unless I confuse the front of the back on this UFO ;)
 
Cutaway Colani-Schulze Cormoran, author Motocar
 

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The Eifelland F1 car, not his most extreme design, but weirdness for weirdness' sake in an environment where design for speed should rule.
1000010946.jpg
 
Looking at his undulous car designs (some of which I *really* like!), I get the impression that he might have hated the fact that wheels had to be round rather than say elliptical...
 
From the Colani-link given by @Rhinocrates in #69:
Despite its innovative design, the [Eifelland F1] car struggled with overheating and insufficient downforce.
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This little horror, offered by Colani as a successor to the VW Beetle:
8cd09c_a46c250ecad147798232504e8160c82b~mv2.png
Just don't get me started about Santiago Calatrava, whose three, multi-million, overdesigned bridges in the Haarlemmermeer polder span a measly 20 12 meter wide canal.
proxy-image(5).jpg
 
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The naïve might believe Colani's claim to be inspired by aerodynamics. He was 'inspired' perhaps but it has to be applied, and that's something different. Adrian Newey has come up with very uncompromising designs for Red Bull and Aston Martin that are determined almost solely by it. They're all the more fascinating because of this. Every curve, aperture and vane has a purpose.

Blue: Red Bull RB17, with banners celebrating his previous designs. Green: Aston Martin Valkyrie.
 

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Rhinocrates said:
... of neither are much good for taking down to the shops to pick up some orange juice. Where Citroën got it right was tempering flamboyance with discipline. Colani's work is without discipline.
View attachment 757395
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To me (and I realize that I am hopelessly dating myself here) the Citroen DS is one of the most aesthetic cars ever designed. I still dream of dropping a purebred US muscle car engine and tranny in it and max this puppy out... Koenigsegg, here we come :)!
 

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