Venetian blinds take to the air!
I'm not exactly sure how this is supposed to work, but I think it has
something to do with ducting the propeller wash downwards and
increasing lift. That probably helps with short take offs, but
what happens when you try to level out?
Probably flies like a set of Venetian blinds,
hence the scarcity of this design.
And here we see the idea resurrected in the '60s,
only this time with a rotor blades under the slats to help provide
lift.
Definitely cooler looking, but not much more convincing in the
airworthiness department. I understand that it eventually made
the history books as the world's largest egg slicer.
