This Terrible Asymmetrical Plane Design Exists... But Is It Secretly Genius?

Welcome to another episode of Trailmakers! Today I am attempting to recreate a mysterious asymmetrical aircraft design I found on the internet that looks impossibly impractical. Strangely, I cannot find much information on the original design, or if it was ever seriously considered for real aircraft. It seems to have too many glaring issues to have ever had a chance of working, but can they be fixed?
Content Referenced:
hushkit.net/2017/12/05/top-te...
www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com/cu...
www.oocities.org/asymmetrics/...
More Recreating Real Life Machines: • Recreating Real Life M...
Tons More Trailmakers: • Is the World Ready for...
My Most Popular Videos (for whatever reason): • ScrapMan's Most Popular!
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About Trailmakers:
In the toughest motoring expedition in the universe, you and your friends will build your own vehicles to cross a dangerous wasteland. Explore, crash horribly, use your wits to build a better rig, and get as far as you can with whatever spare parts you find on your way.
Welcome to the Ultimate Expedition!
Journey over grueling mountains, hazardous swamps, and bone-dry deserts on a distant world far from civilization - it is just you, your fellow adventurers and the amazing, jet-powered hover-buggy you built yourself. Explore, crash your vehicle, build a better one, and get as far as you can with whatever spare parts you find along your way.
Trailmakers is about building very awesome vehicles and machines, but you don’t need an engineering degree to get started. The intuitive builder will get you going in no time. Everything you build is made from physical building blocks. Each block has unique features like shape, weight and functionality. They can be broken off, refitted and used to build something new. Individually the blocks are fairly simple, but combined the possibilities are endless.
Expedition Mode is the challenging campaign mode of Trailmakers. You are competing in an off-world rally expedition with only a few building blocks to get you started. You must build, tinker with and rebuild your machine to progress. Journey through a big world, overcome deep gorges, angry wildlife and dangerous weather to progress and find new parts that will juice up your machine. The world in Expedition Mode will test your survival skills and ingenuity.
Sandbox Mode is where you want to head for an unrestricted, sandbox, vehicle-building experience. Here you can build anything you can dream of, and play around with it in the world of Trailmakers. It is a great place to test out crazy machines, and experiment with the physics engine. With tons of different blocks, hinges, thrusters and interactive vehicle parts - the skybox is the limit.
Trailmakers is even more fun if you play it with other people. Build cool vehicles and compete in mini-game modes with your friends or other Trailmakers online. Build a helicopter, send it to your friend, and shoot them out of the sky. Put two seats on a tank, and let your friend control the turret. As we get further in Early Access development Expedition Mode will also be adapted to multiplayer.
Learn more about the game on www.playtrailmakers.com #scrapman #trailmakers

[@valerianwohlleben9916]

You have a mistake. In the picture you can see that the middle part of the plane isn't at the center of the wing. The left part of the wing is actually longer than the right one...

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

The engine and cockpit are off center to balance the mass at the core of the aircraft. As a concept it might have been balanced. As a practical aircraft I expect the drag to spoil the actual performance.

[@MaxMen11]

Yea

[@maxwelllutomski7855]

@@glenmcgillivray4707 regardless, one wing is still longer than the other

[@The_GG_Janitor]

I believe that he could've fixed the original design with weight only. One other mistake in the final version is there was a high center of thrust in the rear, which, with there being no static aerodynamics in the rear, may have been what was causing the inconsistant pitch down.

[@minecraft_rs3548]

Your right

[@dotspot5990]

Scrapman, you should've looked with more attention to it, the wing with the propeller is bigger, for a better centre of mass.

[@somedudewhoexists]

We need to make sure he sees this

[@samurban6058]

Yeah, back in ye olden days, the props weighed a crap ton.

[@seanhoyle3760]

Please see this !!! I'm pulling my hair out

[@scaredlittleboy7086]

But there's no bigger propeller in this game...

[@the_andrewgrech]

@@samurban6058 Not to mention the engine to power the propeller; that would have been the heaviest part of the plane, right there on the front-left side.

[@warfiend1433]

"Luchtvaart in beeld" was a monthly Dutch magazine about aviation it roughly translates too "Aviation in pictures". It was released during the second world war and their team consisted mostly of Germans and the prime subject of the magazine was German planes. The text on the picture state that the plane designs originates from an English patent, so this one isn't German obviously. You could buy the 1943 issues of said magazine online (quite pricey) but I'd doubt you find anything more about said plane in there tbh. Your best bet would be to go too England and dig through old paper patents.

[@frogsecretaryofswamp452]

Huh

[@Castigar48]

Aviation in pictures... they nailed the name

[@Tax3vader]

Gekoloniseerd 🇳🇱

[@yyglsiirrequiredtohavealas7254]

Somebody get Tom Scott on this!

[@skillzmcgee8013]

He would need to team up with CGP Grey or smthin

[@DeadPlayer13579]

I love it that scrapman goes into a full detective mode and finds legit facts about ancient vehicles

[@jikill7586]

these types of videos make him look like einstein

[@brashirott3813]

11:05 I’m pretty sure that in the image the side of the main wing with the propeller is more bulky than the other side

[@Mike-ukr]

It would've been more interesting to see the assymetric thrust balanced out by a rudder permanently at an angle

[@prestonmiles8721]

That's what I thought the solution should be

[@CATel_]

(cockpit)

[@The_GG_Janitor]

Now hear me out- I don't believe that would work. At low speeds the rudder would have less effect, and at high, vice versa, so if it wasn't able to be adjusted control would suffer greatly. I do think that a rudder with ~30° of control would work, but 30° is optimistic anyway. Edit: unless you were talking about a Horizontal rudder for pitch stabilization, Wich is considered a "trim" tool, and does exist... It would still need to be able to be adjusted though.

[@kazumsvirtuelleeinode4067]

or, if it is a ramming plane, maybe the prop-area is reinforced and therefore heavier? edit: looks like thats what he tried as well.

[@magica3526]

@@The_GG_Janitor this is more true in game than irl. irl you have a lot of airflow from the propeller passing over the rudder making it much more effective than you would expect

[@SpaceSha_rk]

Scrapman, I believe creating a He-162 aka The Salamander would be a great video idea, anyways great content as always!

[@tomahoratiu-andreas442]

I love the fact that you actually show how you found the subject of the video and the research process. It allows the viewer to learn about what the video is focused on without going into too much boring detail.

[@brashirott3813]

4:07 I’m pretty sure that the way it would work or being intended to work is due to how slim body of it is that would snap leading to the cockpit being attached to the tail wing which would end up causing it to change from more event aircraft to a spinning glider where the wing on one side would add both rotation and lift whilst the cockpit would add weight pulling it down quicker but due to the lift it would stay up resulting in a slow descent that isn’t too slow so you would be less likely to be shot by incoming enemy fire

[@EhmedCousCous]

Or the tail would point straight up and it would fall really quick

[@Plasmapigeon]

@@EhmedCousCous That's a good point, If it is possible to achieve a slowed descent I think the intention is for it to be like a maple tree seed, those "helicopter" seeds that spin around with the papery wing. but metal would be too dense/heavy compared to that of the seed.

[@Lillspratt]

Try to build a Draken (j35) it is the first dubbel delta wing design plane in the world, and it was first to be able to do the cobra manouver. It only has a wing and rudder, ni tail.

[@tamimmusa8361]

third

[@nooooooooooooodle]

@@tamimmusa8361 cool?

[@bobhopman4648]

Or a viggen

[@EhmedCousCous]

Yeah but they are very unstable and would need really complex logic

[@Lillspratt]

@@EhmedCousCous ye thats what makes it a challenge

[@GraisioniaIV]

Lets just thank scrapman for a sec for all the great content

[@dark-5825]

Agreed

[@tetronaut88]

You haven't even watched the whole vid yet.. but I wholeheartedly agree

[@gianniskikas9428]

Yes

[@dark-5825]

@@tetronaut88 well with scrapman you know it's gonna be good. I have literally watched every video for at least 2 years and have never ever been even slightly dissatisfied

[@ColinTimmins]

@@dark-5825 I agree. I give all top creators a thumbs up and try to make at least one comment while watching. The least I can do for such great content. Haven’t been disappointed yet.

[@Tauramehtar]

I love all your stuff Scrapman, but for me these historical recreations take the cake. Still waiting for you to try to make the Antikythera mechanism, if that's even possible. 😁

[@GreenTheem]

Perhaps the cockpit’s drawing implies an imbedded propellor beneath the pilot as its counterbalancing thrust point (referencing the series of detailings at the front of the teardrop), **as well as** a tail fin at the rear region of the teardrop shape (Potentially Implied by the medial line behind the center of the teardrop) Also x2: The front wing has much more surface area to the left of the central fuselage than to the right of it - this was likely for that balancing issue you experienced. You could simulate this by just using building blocks onto the front and left sides of the wing. This could also open opportunity for utilizing Trailmakers’ sloped blocks for shaping the wing more precisely, but also for that aerodynamic bonus, too!

[@IkeaShark3937]

I don’t think it would be a propeller below the cockpit, I think it signifies a wheel below the cockpit for landing

[@looksgoodonpaper]

Love this series and the history intro, awesome!

[@mr.benther]

Idea: Could you make a bomber plane that instead of dropping bombs drops parts of it self that are also loaded with bombs?

[@hitechhooligan]

that's a great idea, Scrapman should try it

[@kosmickitten_au4550]

So cool! I love the fact that you do so much research. It nice seeing history that way

[@tommYnat0r]

Hey Scrapman, I love your videos where you re-create machines and stuff. I know Scrap Mechanic and Trailamakers are your "main games" in this stuff but you ever thought in rebuilding stuff in Simple Planes or Main Assembly? I like the fact that you have limitations but if you want to be "more accurate" maybe the other two games are worth a try for those kind of videos? If not that's fine as well :) Thanks and keep it up :)

[@_.crzzyy._]

This is cool! i was very surprised to see the cockpit actually survive the crash. Cool build!

[@plaguetpk5403]

Although you countered those problems really well scrapman, I love your content can’t wait for your next video

[@antoniolozic1517]

Finally ive been waiting for another trailmakers video!

[@jovani3479]

The left wing seems to be longer than the right wing and i think there might have been a tail fin on the cockpit

[@LastBaws]

it is a sketch tho, it's possible that scrapman assumed that the wings were supposed to be equal length, and same with the tail fin since it doesn't show that the fin continues he prob thought it was intentional.

[@pure_sorcerer]

10:22 people who noticed that the left front wing of the plane is longer than the one on the front right are really pissed off by now, at least i am

[@Cryingformylife]

This! Its like he puts all this time into the research, he could at least build it the same -_-

[@vicinity1337]

It isn't

[@zainsalmon4694]

It's very missable, didn't notice till you said that

[@Nobody_on_earth]

​@@CryingformylifeBRO LOOK AT THE F****** IMAGE THE LEFT WING IT IS LONGER THAN THE RIGHT WING

[@jikill7586]

this was the first ever video i've ever watched, and i've fallen in LOVE with your videos. i know this sounds weird, but i've had a dream where i was playing minecraft and found a shipwreck, and we were playing with each other. weird asf, but it was so trippy

[@failuretocomply8402]

I think part of the issue of nosing down was partly because the cockpit was raised above the wings. Causing the thrust to be above that aswell

[@thebluewolfreaper5173]

Thanks for showing me that you can find what your looking for with images that can be really useful.

[@dukeofpotato3609]

as a student doing ancient history I am astonished by how many reliable sources you have

[@tylerlemler127]

I’ve seen this design of plane in another game I play. It glued surprisingly well. With very little roll, I thought no way it would fly, but hey it did

[@dodeldidonoob9201]

if you look very closely you can see that the wing where the propeller hangs on is a longer than the wing where there is no propeller on resorting in more drag on the left wing so you don't need does propellers on dat cockpit if you have a langer left wing :)

[@tomothybahamothy]

You mean cackpit?

[@jellyakram1838]

He did something wrong with with the wing he was on mirror mode so it's the same but actually the left wing is more out and he did that wrong so he needs to redo it like for him to see

[@nobody7442]

Also the left wing has more weight than the right one

[@vlads3283]

Mad Genius design. Could work with the right technology and a bit of lucky but it's simply too diffcult to use and get right for mass production

[@wertugavw]

thanks for the awesome content, i really enjoy it!

[@flattirefire]

its awesome how much effort scrapman puts into his videos for us

[@samtaylor209]

Plz do more trailmakers it’s so good. Ur my fav utuber

[@Atris_Hayport]

This is just... Research in the modern age... the tutorial, I love it! cant wait to see the rest of the video!

[@coolcrazyguyer]

Hi scrap man i have been watching your vids for 2 months and the one I loved the most was your evolution series can you make another evolution trailmakers vid

[@benji6871]

you should try doing some of these projects in main assembly, since it is a lot more flexible

[@katestramenos929]

I saw the cockpit work correctly in an earlier test you did!! It happened in the background unintentionally lol I was like, oh hell yea, the cockpit works 🤣🤣

[@MrAgnostizist]

good video so far. but i was wondering, couldnt you try building kinda stuff in ksp, too? its physics are far more realistic and it looks so much better

[@Hlebuw3k]

Im loving these searches for the original design at the start! It reminds me of someone who searched for the origin of the meme "Tonk", and i would also like to see ScrapMan build it. You can find some pictures by searching "Tonk meme"

[@louisdebut2629]

There's a bunch of videos like this one that would be very interesting to see with all the new parts! Also the forces would freak out so bad if you load this creation now... Take care of yourself scrapman

[@ulfnic]

When you first added weight to the front left wing tip the plane rotated left. With no weight the plane rotated right. Could that mean tuning that weight would make the plane work with no back propellers? Thanks as always ScrapMan, really appreciate the daily videos :)

[@luckyoceandy2104]

scrapman please make a video where you bring all of the weird and whacky vehicles in to public lobbys

[@nobody7442]

Good idea

[@luckyoceandy2104]

well that was quick

[@josephwimerYoYoYo]

If it was truly described as a "rammer" then you have to assume the original designer was intending for part of the aircraft to be sacrificed in a maneuver. Maybe you can reimagine it in a post-ram state? Either way awesome video! Maybe you can build something that is flyable in two different states XD

[@maxwelllutomski7855]

I doubt that it'd make it better, but if you look at the drawing, the front wings are also asymmetrical

[@galaxia9215]

Make more historical recreation video I LOVE IT!!!

[@Dragon-jo9qy]

Love the content u should do a challenge about this!

[@x0-1death46]

Amazing project scrapman!!

[@JNCressey]

5:30 A "plan view" is a real term. Simplified wikipedia says: "A plan view is an orthographic projection of a 3-dimensional object from the position of a horizontal plane through the object." And "planform" means an object's shape in plan view.

[@Trystan4242]

Amazing plain thanks for joining moonbos stream it was nice to say hi

[@Kraxel-North]

This is My favourite series on this channel

[@bryanb4842]

Take a look at James Bruton’s channel he designed and omnidirectional walking machine. Think it would be cool to see this in scrapmechanic or trailmakers

[@zachrodan7543]

my guess in regards to yaw controls, the cockpit is likely atop a vertical stabilizer, meaning there is a rudder under it

[@irondreadnought3559]

Did you know that during WW2 Germany built an entirely new plane, called the HE-111-Z, to carry a transport glider, if you want to know more, just look up it's name, it could be considered similar to the Bf 109Z "Zwilling"

[@Nomiswelt]

It's genuis! What I wanna say is there's a typo in the thumbnail

[@talinpeacy7222]

It's hard to tell by the view angle, but I think the tail fin was meant to be on the rear of the cockpit. I also believe the body was thinner, the weight largely being in the engine and the cockpit being a mostly thin plated tear drop with somewhat aerofoil characteristics. It wouldn't help much with the drag distribution but it might make it workable without strapping props to the cockpit.

[@Karagianis]

Look up the German Blohm und Voss BV141, asymetrical planes have been built and have flown. It takes a lot of design work to balance the asymetrical mass and thrust so that it will fly in a stable manner, but it IS possible.

[@georgek4347]

This has been very fun

[@loganmunier9798]

Ok, this was awesome on it's own, but the fact that it actually does what it was intended to do is just divine.

[@danser_theplayer01]

Imagine your plane is so bad that even in the internet era all people have is one basic image.

[@GoshkaPolska]

It also seems like their could be a tail maby under the Tail wings raising them up? and the left wing is longer to acount for the ofset center of thrust

[@burningcaiman208]

gah i forgot how much i loved the music when scrap edited his own stuff

[@Caden-jp5cn]

i have a request, You should try and make the b2 spirit or the f-117 NightHawk

[@nikkusonmandorein1613]

I think that one side of the wings are larger than the other side. If you look closer you can see that the top left wing is longer and wider, and the bottom right appears to be a bit longer as well.

[@lejujogranie3643]

It's actually brilliant. 9:10 Imagine using this as a take off-method making it somehow controlable and reliable, to decrease the space needed for take offs.

[@DMZ_5]

It's basically a helicopter, the motion just comes from thrust in the wingtip rather then a center point. See the WW2 German Focke-Wulf Triebflügel for another application

[@lejujogranie3643]

@@DMZ_5Oh You're right

[@lejujogranie3643]

@@DMZ_5 But in flight it's just a normal plane tho.

[@Sabamonster]

First thing - The wing with the propeller was larger and tapered differently. Secondly, I feel like had they attempted this design they probably would have gone through a similar process to identify shortcomings and issues as they arose. It stands to reason that if you got it to fly in a limited physics game they could have done so in the real world. Considering it served it's primary function I'd call that a resounding success.

[@calelsun]

Are the propellers set to 1-2 block height differences? Maybe could be causing some of the trouble if they are.

[@Jorge25red]

Had an idea for a trailmakers multiplayer challenge! Make cars with Diving Bells and do an Underwater Demolition Derby!

[@ryutak4152]

It should be able to move forward with just one engine. You would have to reach point of stability which I doubt you can do in Trailmakers. Move center body to the right and adjust wing size. Left should be bigger than right one. You must tweak weight in the place of propeller and in the place of the cockipt, reaching a certain balance. It should be doable but I doubt it can be replicated in TM.

[@Fops09]

Could you please make the Blohm & Voss BV 141? It was an asymmetrical plane actually in use during World War Two as a German reconnaissance plane Great Video overall

[@PaulJohnRingoGeorge1963]

try looking in to the Heinkel He.P.1065 IIc asymmetric german bomber

[@tylerm124]

Does airspeed actually effect how much authority you have with control surfaces? Because if it does it seems like the left ailerons and elevator would have a lot more control authority than the entire right side because they have a lot more airspeed running over them from the prop

[@twisteddman]

the diagram seems like its actually just a simple representation of what other possible "asymmetry" can be on an airplane . it said its from a patent , so the patent is probably just using that to cover"asymmetry" possibilities and was never designed to be an actual airplane

[@jellynightthenight8796]

6 minutes, and this vid is CROWDED!

[@asbjrnlomborg7830]

for this to have worked, the left wing would have been a lot bigger and a lot heavier, possibly having a fuel tank attached to the buttom of it as well. The cockpit also would have probably been very light for it to not weigh down the back of the airplane. I also think that the right side back wing should have been bigger to create more lift and therefore cancel out the asymmetrical weight.

[@kopiito8810]

Thank you scrapguy

[@truth7094]

Next can you build the SP80_progect in the wind DLC? TKS

[@bunny6820]

Adding 1 wing piece to the front right and 1 to the back left might have equalized the lift and made it easier to handle without it wanting to roll imo

[@MikeHarrison3266]

I can't help but wonder why in the drawing the left wing was longer so the body of the plane was offset to the right but in your modelling it was central.

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

Mangelwurzel is a vegetable. The wartime article was most likely a spoof - like the shot down pilot who told the Germans he’d been flying a Huntley Palmer bomber with Peak Frean engines, or the various articles about ‘gremlins’.

[@sidwilliams1529]

Sorry couldn’t watch your videos this week because I’m on holiday

[@neptune2497]

idk if u still read the comments here but i would love to see the video with the airbone update 😊

[@JoeMama-me5wp]

Speaking of asymmetrical planes. Can you do the blohm & voss bv 141.

[@Dragongirl-jv9bv]

Can you make The Stipa-Caproni from 1932? It's a funny looking aircraft xD like cartoons in real life, also I'm trying find what that really asymmetrical plane you made, I'm wondering if it was a joke design or something

[@WhitzWolf92]

He actually did that one back in March, I don't know if I'll be able link it but search his channel for the title. "Was This Bizarre Looking Plane Actually The First Jet?"

[@noelhutchins7366]

AS.31 looks like a pod racer; could you make a working pod-racer in game?

[@Pystro]

Let me translate the caption of that unexplained figure for you: "Fig. 6a b and c. English drafts and patent drawings for asymmetric airplanes from the years 1938 and 1942." Seems like if you wanted to find out what that figure 6c airplane is you might have a shot if you sifted though patents from those years in England. edit: Ah, I see you auto-translated that.

[@Eagleblenderman]

Suggestion: smallest flying vehicle (maybe)

[@schw4rztee502]

You should try making something like the Aircraft carrying submarines that Japan used in WWII.

[@Baldamaniac]

I have a weird feeling that the cockpit in the original design was also for yaw like it turned the shape of it seems like it would or could help turn

[@mathiaseisenach7908]

Have you ever decided to play Terra tech?

[@creativecreeper6147]

Scrapman: We need a tailfin Bro, you should've added that ages ago! Sure it doesn't show in the picture but that doesn't mean it's not there

[@Syrussyrus-rw6nj]

I'm not quiet sure but on picture on the cockpit I think there should be a rudder/tail in.

[@giovanni6523]

can we get this man a History with Scrapman animation

[@InfiniXCat]

I remember you once made an asymmetrical plane

[@dryryeroll7823]

An asymmetrical that worked amazingly well is the BV-141. It was a German recon plane designed so the crew could look behind the plane. Apparently it flew very well.

[@ZantZ]

Man the wing was shifted to the left and he made it symmetrical. We need another video

[@Simulacra001]

Add a tail fin with rudder and set it with an offset to counter the spin.

[@carlycrawford2713]

Welcome to the world of military history document finding. Takes you longer to find the stuff than it takes to study it. And thats saying something when your into naval things lol

[@evanwaldner2226]

scrapman should try using simple planes for his builds with planes because you can modify it more easily

[@Babyrobot444]

That feeling when your plane starts its flight in a tailspin.

[@theejderha528]

possibly the engine torque can be used to prevent that right turn