MILES M.35 LIBELLULA

The Miles M.35 Libellula was a British research and experimental aircraft from the Second World War. The flight of the prototype took place in May 1942 - the machine, as it were, never entered mass production. The plane was 6.2 meters long with a wingspan of 6.22 meters. The drive was provided by a single de Havilland Gipsy Major engine with 130 HP. The plane did not have on-board weapons. Miles M.35 Libellula was created to test the aerodynamic properties and flight behavior of an airplane with two pairs of airfoils. In the case of the M.35, one wing was at the front of the airplane in the high wing system and the other wing at the rear as the low wing wing. Ultimately, such a system would be used in on-board fighters, which, thanks to such an unusual configuration, would have a relatively small wingspan and would not have to fold or unfold them. Interestingly, the flight tests of the machine were quite successful, but neither the British Admiralty, nor the Ministry of Aviation were interested in building the machine in such an aerodynamic system.