Designed by Ettore Bugatti in 1938 for the Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup Race of 1939, it wasn´t completed for the deadline of September 1939 and was stored before the German invasion of France.
It had two engines driving two counter-rotating propellers, a 120° V-tail arrangement and a retractable landing gear.
Fast forward to 2015, a team of enthusiasts decided to make full scale flying recreation of the aircraft:
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July 4th: the aircraft (named Blue Dream) taxied under the power of its two Suzuki Hayabusa engines.
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August 19th: the aircraft makes a test flight and achieves an altitude of 100ft. Before landing, it floated too much and touched down on the runway farther than expected. The brakes were used continously to avoid overruning it. The right brake failed and the aircraft veered to a muddy field, resulting in a propeller and spinner crash.
Video of the incident:
P100 - YouTube -
October: It makes a successful flight after being repaired.
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August 6th, 2016: the aircraft makes another flight near Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in Oklahoma. After a minute, it banks to the left and dives into a nearby field. The crash instantly kills the pilot.
It was planned to retire this aircraft to an unnamed museum in the UK after this third flight.
This airframe belongs to the Mullin Museum in Oxnard, California.