Dornier Aerodyne

The Dornier Aerodyne, also called the Lippisch-Dornier Aerodyne, was a wingless vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle. The German aeronautical engineer Alexander Lippisch conceived the wingless concept in the late 1950s and patented it in 1959. West Germany's Federal Ministry of Defence took it up in the mid 1960s and in 1967 arranged for Dornier Flugzeugwerke to build a prototype. The first flight took place on 18 September 1972 and development ended on 30 November 1972 after successful hovering tests, because the Bundeswehr showed little interest in unmanned reconnaissance. The prototype is on public display at the Deutsches Museum.