Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer

Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer - The Birth of the Bugatti 100P

The Bugatti 100P has a fascinating origin story unlike any other aircraft. In the late 1930s, Ettore Bugatti, founder of the legendary Bugatti automotive company, had the ambitious idea of building the world's fastest plane. Aviation was Ettore's passion, even more so than cars. He dreamed of breaking world records and putting Bugatti on the map in the aviation realm.

Ettore was inspired by recent developments in aerodynamics and aircraft design coming out of Germany at the time. He recruited Louis de Monge, a pioneering mathematician and aerodynamicist, to help bring his vision to life. Monge played a key role in optimizing the 100P's radical design through advanced mathematical calculations and wind tunnel testing.

Construction on the 100P prototype began in earnest in 1939 at Bugatti's Molsheim factory. Ettore and his team worked in strict secrecy, knowing that the 100P's groundbreaking design could change the course of aviation. The 100P featured cutting-edge aerodynamic features like a highly streamlined fuselage, short wings, and counter-rotating propellers. According to Bugatti's calculations, the 100P would be capable of over 500 mph, even faster than the WW2 aircraft of the era.

By 1940, the 100P was nearly complete and ready for its maiden flight. However, the German occupation of France during WW2 halted the project indefinitely. Fearing the advanced 100P could fall into Nazi hands, Ettore had the aircraft disassembled and hid the pieces throughout Paris. It was a heartbreaking setback after all the time, resources and innovative thinking invested into this passion project.

Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer - Wind Tunnel Testing Reveals Design Flaws

Wind tunnel testing is a critical part of aircraft design, enabling engineers to visualize how air will flow around the vehicle and identify any issues before the first prototype is built. For Ettore Bugatti and Louis de Monge, putting the 100P through rigorous wind tunnel trials would validate their mathematical calculations and audacious ideas.

In the 1930s, wind tunnel testing was still in its infancy, with facilities few and far between. According to Bugatti’s memoirs, he and de Monge initially tested scale models of the 100P in makeshift wind tunnels in Paris. However, the limited capabilities meant these basic trials revealed little about the 100P’s flight dynamics.

Ettore knew that proper assessment required access to one of the new high-tech wind tunnels in Germany. Through his industry connections, he was able to secure time at the massive Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt facility in Braunschweig. Engineers marveled at the striking full-scale 100P model as it was mounted in the wind tunnel. While prior tests had focused on small components, this would provide the first look at how the aircraft would actually perform in flight.

The initial wind tunnel tests immediately revealed major issues with the 100P’s unique design. The uncanny counter-rotating propellers turned out to be highly unstable, creating excessive vibration and torque at high speeds. The unusual short wings also generated more drag than expected, while lacking sufficient lift. Clearly, Bugatti and de Monge’s calculations did not translate perfectly from theory to physical reality.

However, through extensive modifications guided by wind tunnel findings, the 100P’s flaws were gradually remedied. The counter-rotating propellers were abandoned for a more conventional three-blade design, eliminating vibration issues. The wings were made longer and fitted with flaps to optimize lift, while the vertical tail was enlarged for greater stability. This iterative process demonstrated the immense value of thorough wind tunnel testing.

Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer - An Unlikely Alliance Between Ettore Bugatti and Louis De Monge

The collaboration between Ettore Bugatti and Louis de Monge is one of the most fascinating elements of the Bugatti 100P's origin story. On paper, these two men could hardly be more different. Ettore was the charismatic founder of a French luxury automotive brand, a consummate salesman and promoter who excelled at wooing wealthy clientele. Louis, meanwhile, was an eccentric Hungarian mathematician who spent his days scribbling equations, a man of pure theory with little interest in practical applications.

Yet somehow, their unlikely partnership gave rise to one of the most groundbreaking aircraft designs of the era. Ettore supplied the vision, creativity, and resources while Louis provided mathematical rigor and aerodynamic expertise. As Ettore once wrote, “I make the drawings and designs for new vehicles, and make them feasible. But I do not have the scientific knowledge to justify my ideas...[Monge] is able to make mathematical calculations I do not have the knowledge for.”

This symbiotic relationship enabled the 100P project to rapidly progress from fanciful idea to near-operational prototype. As an aviation enthusiast, Ettore was aware of recent advances in aerodynamic theory and design coming from Germany's Junkers and Messerschmitt companies. However, he lacked the technical skills to apply those concepts himself. Louis, meanwhile, was a pioneer in aerodynamic mathematics and airfoil theory, but his work remained abstract and academic.

Combining Ettore's imagination with Louis' analytical skills resulted in the 100P's many revolutionary design elements. The aircraft's elliptical wings, streamlined fuselage, and counter-rotating propellers all stemmed from a perfect fusion of art and science. Louis provided the numbers to back up Ettore's unconventional ideas.

Most remarkably, the two men were able to work together despite their vastly different personalities and approaches. Ettore once described Louis as "a man who could irritate anyone with his eccentricity.” Meanwhile, Louis likely saw Ettore as an impulsive and distractible dreamer. However, they shared a restless creativity and disdain for the status quo. When they came together around the 100P, their strengths complemented each other perfectly to achieve something neither could alone.

Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer - The Mysterious Disappearance of the Prototype

The abrupt disappearance of the Bugatti 100P prototype just before its first flight is one of the most puzzling mysteries surrounding this ill-fated aircraft. By June 1940, initial wind tunnel trials were complete and the 100P was nearly ready for its highly anticipated maiden voyage. Ettore Bugatti planned to showcase the 100P at a major aircraft exhibition that summer in Paris, hoping to stun the aviation world. However, fate intervened when the German army invaded and occupied France.

With war underway, Bugatti realized the advanced 100P would be an irresistible prize for the Nazis if discovered. He arranged for the aircraft to be secretly disassembled and transported away from his Molsheim factory into hiding. Various components were dispersed to warehouses and barns across Paris, while the fuselage was buried on a French farm.

Ettore took these precautions not a moment too soon, as the Bugatti factory was soon commandeered by the German military for the war effort. Had the 100P remained, it surely would have been confiscated or destroyed. However, the covert relocation came at a cost - with the prototype scattered in pieces across the countryside, there was now little hope of reassembly and first flight anytime soon.

For over four decades after the war, the 100P's remains stayed hidden away and largely forgotten. Many feared the disassembled prototype had been lost for good or destroyed. However, an automotive historian named Harold Medcalf finally tracked down the surviving 100P components in the late 1970s. It was a monumental discovery after so many years shrouded in mystery.

Medcalf was instrumental in organizing the painstaking restoration of the recovered Bugatti sections. The aircraft’s fuselage had remained buried on a farm and was disturbingly decayed after decades underground. The wings and other parts scattered around Paris were also corroded and incomplete. However, enough of the airplane had endured to enable an accurate recreation.

After an extensive global search to source original or replicated Bugatti 100P parts, the resurrected aircraft was displayed at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1989. For aviation enthusiasts, it was a thrilling chance to finally glimpse this phantom airplane after its strange multi-decade absence. The aircraft’s mysterious road to restoration only adds to its mystique and importance in aerospace history.

Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer - Rediscovering the 100P Four Decades Later

For over four decades after Bugatti hid the 100P prototype in 1940, the airplane remained frozen in time - scattered across the French countryside in pieces, untouched and unrestored. Many feared the disassembled 100P had been permanently lost to history after the war, its visionary design and technology locked away forever in secrecy. However, in the late 1970s, that all changed when a British Bugatti enthusiast and historian named Harold Medcalf finally rediscovered the long-dormant 100P components. Medcalf’s monumental find reignited hopes that this enigmatic airplane could be brought back to life once more.

During the war, Bugatti hid parts of the 100P fuselage on a rural French farm while the wings and other sections were smuggled into Paris warehouses for safekeeping. After peace returned, those stored components endured for decades, largely forgotten. But Medcalf remained fixated on the 100P, inspired by old patents and drawings hinting at its groundbreaking design. His relentless global search eventually unearthed the surviving pieces nearly 40 years later.

While the recovered 100P sections were corroded after decades of storage, enough of the airplane had survived for an accurate recreation. The next challenge was organizing and funding the extensive restoration process required to make the 100P whole again. Medcalf played a key role in assembling a team of experts in the late 1970s to resurrect this phantom aircraft.

The 100P’s road to rebirth was arduous, requiring a painstaking search for replacement parts across the world. The recovered fuselage from its farm burial site proved especially decayed, needing extensive work to restore its underlying structure. Many unique Bugatti-designed components had to be remanufactured from scratch. But finally in 1988, the reassembled 100P prototype emerged from decades of slumber to be displayed at Oshkosh, Wisconsin's renowned EAA AirVenture Museum.

For aviation history enthusiasts, the dramatic rediscovery and rebirth of the Bugatti 100P proved an almost unbelievable development. This striking yet ill-fated aircraft had languished unfinished for over 40 years as a little-known footnote. But thanks to Medcalf’s passion, the 100P was saved from obscurity to finally take its rightful place in the annals of aerospace engineering. Its remarkable resurrection offers valuable lessons about imagination, persistence and the importance of preserving the past.

Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer - What Could Have Been: The 100P's Unrealized Potential

Had fate dealt Ettore Bugatti and his 100P aircraft a kinder hand, this striking prototype could have proven a transformative force in aviation history. Grounded by war before its first flight, the 100P represented a tremendous untapped potential that never had the chance to be realized. The airplane's bold design innovations presaged future developments in aerodynamics and aircraft performance. Yet its story serves as a bittersweet reminder of the setbacks and missed opportunities that so often accompany pioneering dreams.

Like many visionaries limited by the technology of their time, Bugatti was unable to fully capitalize on the promise of his creation. The 100P's sleek elliptical wings, aerodynamic fuselage, and counter-rotating propellers influenced aircraft builders for decades to come, even as the original prototype languished incomplete and hidden away. One can only speculate how the 100P could have accelerated progress in aeronautics had it met its ambitious performance goals. A successful test flight in 1940 would have profoundly shaped the course of WWII aerial combat and aviation after the war.

Instead, the unfinished 100P slipped into obscurity, a faded footnote in Bugatti's legend known mainly to obscure enthusiasts. The rediscovered and restored 100P that visitors admire today at the EAA Museum is but a shadow of how the real aircraft could have electrified the world. We can never recreate that initial shock of the 100P roaring past 500 mph as Ettore Bugatti first envisioned. The sheer creativity and boldness powering the 100P project rate it among the most forward-looking aviation achievements of the era, even if only in potential.

The seductive allure of imagining an alternate history for Bugatti's airplane has long captivated aviation lovers. One easily pictures an operational 100P being the scourge of the skies over WWII Europe, decades ahead of its time. Some have speculated that, if flown successfully, interest from the Allies could have saved Bugatti's company post-war rather than its dissolution in the 1950s. But these fantasies remain only imagination, not reality. The 100P stands as a thought-provoking emblem of an innovative mind limited by circumstance, budget and timing.

Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer - Legacy of the 100P - Influencing Future Aircraft Design

The Bugatti 100P's forward-thinking design features directly inspired subsequent generations of aircraft builders, cementing its legacy as one of the most influential planes never flown. Despite never leaving the ground, the 100P's pedigree as an imaginative fusion of art and science sparked waves of innovation that shaped aviation for decades.

Many of the 100P's once-radical attributes like elliptical wings, a streamlined fuselage, and retractable landing gear became standard on aircraft going forward. The Junkers Ju 287 bomber prototype in 1944 borrowed heavily from the 100P's design with similarly swept wings and tandem landing gear. Northrop's later YB-35 and YB-49 "Flying Wing" bombers also echoed the 100P's smooth, rounded contours and emphasis on reducing drag.

The 100P's rapid progress from concept to near-flight-ready prototype also demonstrated the value of wind tunnel and mathematical modeling to refine unconventional designs. After WWII, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed Skunk Works cited wind tunnel data as crucial in optimizing the aerodynamics of the F-104 Starfighter to set a new speed record.

On the civil aviation side, de Havilland's revolutionary Comet airliner of 1952 drew lessons from the 100P's extensive wind tunnel testing regime. Comet designers rigorously analyzed small scale models to evolve the final clean, efficient shape. However, they notably failed to also test a complete fuselage like Bugatti's team, resulting in catastrophic metal fatigue issues.

The 100P's exotic counter-rotating propellers, while unsuccessful, paved the way for future counter-rotating systems on aircraft from the Windecker Eagle to the Lockheed Electra turboprop. Engineers continued chasing the ideal of counter-rotation to balance torque and maximize efficiency, often referring back to Bugatti and de Monge's original ambitious attempt on the 100P.

While we will never know exactly how the 100P would have flown, its sheer inventiveness as an early iteration of aerodynamic theory into practice makes it a pivotal case study. Contemporary reports suggest the 100P could have exceeded 500 mph, a staggering speed for the era. Engineers often develop new performance benchmarks by reexamining 'failed' designs and learning why they never measured up to expectations. Future pioneers may yet uncover fresh insights that Bugatti and de Monge missed while studying the marvel that is the 100P.

Forgotten Flight: Inside Bugatti's Striking Yet Ill-Fated 100P Racer - Will We Ever See the 100P Fly?

The tantalizing prospect of seeing the Bugatti 100P take flight after over 80 years of dormancy continues to capture the imagination of aviation enthusiasts. While the restored 100P remains safely grounded today, a dedicated team of engineers led by Scotty Wilson set out in 2008 to build a fully functional recreation that could fly for the first time. Their ambitious project sought to transform this phantom prototype into a living, breathing aircraft.

Wilson's organization, The Bugatti 100P Project, painstakingly reverse-engineered the 100P using Bugatti's original patents and wind tunnel data. They strived to recreate the airplane as authentically as possible, hand-crafting components using materials and techniques available in the 1930s. However, state-of-the-art avionics and safety systems were added to satisfy modern aviation regulations. The powerplant was also upgraded from the original 450 hp Bugatti engine to a modern 500 hp unit while retaining the look of the older motor.

After 12 years of global collaboration between passionate aviation specialists, the completed replica 100P was unveiled in November 2019. This faithful reincarnation of Bugatti and de Monge’s design was displayed at the EAA AirVenture Museum next to the original restored 100P. For Wilson’s team, it marked the thrilling culmination of over a decade’s work to give this visionary aircraft its long-overdue first flight.

Ground testing of the replica 100P commenced in early 2022 to assess engine performance, braking, and taxi dynamics. So far, results have proven highly promising. The team aims to attempt a maiden flight later this year at Oshkosh's Wittman Regional Airport under the supervision of renowned test pilot Steve Hinton. Realizing a successful first flight will require meticulous planning to slowly expand the operating envelope without compromising safety.

Many eagerly await the sight of the unmistakable 100P silhouette gracefully taking wing over 80 years since its conception. Footage of that pioneering flight will undeniably become one of the most iconic moments in 21st century aviation. Fulfilling the 100P’s potential will fittingly launch the next chapter in this unique aircraft’s already extraordinary history.