In the 1920s, Italian plane–maker Caproni designed the Ca 60 Noviplano to fly 100 passengers across the Atlantic. It must rank as one of the ugliest things to ever take to the air: it had no less than nine wings – three sets of three – and eight engines. The cumbersome beast flew only once – from Italy’s Lake Maggiori – and reached the dizzy height of 60ft before crashing back down into the water (the pilot escaped unhurt, though the wrecked aircraft was destroyed in a fire after being dragged ashore). Nine-wing planes have been conspicuously absent from aviation record books ever since.

Be better than your predecessor

The Fairey Albacore was a carrier-based torpedo bomber designed to replace the venerable Fairey Swordfish, a canvas-covered biplane with open cockpits that served on the front line at the beginning of World War II. The two-wing Albacore had a modern, more battle-friendly enclosed cockpit and was more aerodynamically streamlined, and it began replacing Swordfish units in 1940. But crews didn’t take to it; the Albacore wasn’t pleasant to fly, and pilots insisted on flying the Swordfish instead. Albacores were retired in 1943 – the last Swordfish didn’t come off the production line until a year later.

The Soviet MiG-23 was the backbone of Warsaw Pact fighter fleets in the 1970s and 80s, and equipped many other air forces around the world. It was designed to replace the delta-winged MiG-21, which had been serving since the late 1950s. The MiG-23 was much faster and had a modern, swing-wing design, but the pilot sat in a narrow, cramped cockpit with poor rear view. Furthermore, the lighter, more nimble MiG-21 was a much better dogfighter. When the Cold War ended, many air forces ditched their MiG-23s, whereas hundreds of MiG-21s are still in service two decades later, and production of Chinese-built versions only recently stopped.

Necessity isn’t always the mother of invention

Two aircraft from the final days of the Third Reich show desperate times shouldn't always call for desperate measures. The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was a rocket-powered interceptor developed to shoot down the heavy bombers raiding Germany. The Komet could fly 100mph faster than any Allied fighter plane, but it had only three minutes worth of fuel – the aircraft had to glide back to base under its own power. One problem was the fuel; an oxidising agent called T-Stoff helped power the plane, but it was so volatile it would combust on contact with clothing or leather. Even fuelling the aircraft was a hazard.