{"id":2422756,"date":"2026-06-22T18:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=2422756"},"modified":"2026-07-21T13:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T11:52:23","slug":"christmas-bullet-worst-aircraft-ever-built","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/fr\/christmas-bullet-worst-aircraft-ever-built\/","title":{"rendered":"L&#039;avion qui a tu\u00e9 ses deux pilotes d&#039;essai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style><\/p>\r\n<p>There are bad aircraft, and then there is the Christmas Bullet \u2014 a machine so misconceived that it holds a record no other aeroplane will ever want: it killed a test pilot on its first flight, and then killed a second test pilot on the first flight of the second example. Two aircraft built. Two flights flown. Two pilots dead. A perfect, horrifying record.<\/p>\r\n<p>How does an aeroplane get that wrong? It starts with a man who was utterly certain he knew better than everyone in aviation \u2014 and knew, in fact, almost nothing at all.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f2f4f7; border-radius: 8px; padding: 18px 22px; margin: 24px 0;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 10px; font-weight: bold; color: #333; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: .3px;\">QUICK FACTS<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 5px 0; font-size: 15px;\"><strong style=\"color: #5c91ff;\">Aircraft:<\/strong> Christmas Bullet (Cantilever Aero Bullet)<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 5px 0; font-size: 15px;\"><strong style=\"color: #5c91ff;\">Designer:<\/strong> Dr. William Whitney Christmas<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 5px 0; font-size: 15px;\"><strong style=\"color: #5c91ff;\">Built:<\/strong> 1918\u20131919, two examples<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 5px 0; font-size: 15px;\"><strong style=\"color: #5c91ff;\">Fatal flaw:<\/strong> Unbraced wings, designed to \u201cflex\u201d like a bird\u2019s<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 5px 0; font-size: 15px;\"><strong style=\"color: #5c91ff;\">Flights:<\/strong> Two \u2014 both ended in fatal crashes<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 5px 0; font-size: 15px;\"><strong style=\"color: #5c91ff;\">Legacy:<\/strong> Widely called the worst aircraft ever built<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">The doctor who knew better<\/h2>\r\n<p>William Whitney Christmas was a physician, not an engineer. What he lacked in aeronautical training he made up for in self-belief and a gift for promotion. He spun grand claims about his flying machines and his own genius, and he convinced enough people to fund a fighter aircraft he called the Bullet.<\/p>\r\n<p>His central idea was the one that killed people. Christmas was convinced that an aircraft\u2019s wings should not be rigid but should flex and flap, like a bird\u2019s, as it flew. So he built the Bullet with cantilever wings carrying no external struts or bracing wires at all \u2014 a clean, strutless look that, in 1918, was wildly ahead of its time in appearance and catastrophically behind it in engineering.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin: 0 0 24px;\"><img data-opt-id=1210312365  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"display: block; width: 100%!important; max-width: 100%!important; height: auto!important; border-radius: 6px;\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/06\/william-whitney-christmas.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. William Whitney Christmas\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" \/>\r\n<figcaption style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: 6px; font-style: italic;\">Dr. William Whitney Christmas \u2014 physician, self-promoter, and designer of an aircraft with no idea how aircraft worked. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">Built from the wrong stuff<\/h2>\r\n<p>The execution matched the theory. The Bullet was reportedly assembled from materials that were never aircraft-grade \u2014 whatever wood and steel could be scrounged \u2014 and fitted with an engine Christmas had managed to obtain. The wings, unbraced and flimsy, were expected to do something no wing should ever do: bend dramatically in flight and somehow remain attached.<\/p>\r\n<p>They did not remain attached.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; margin: 24px 0;\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0; border-radius: 8px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/q6akp_kxHJg\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-no-lazy=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>The video above walks through the whole sorry saga \u2014 the claims, the design, and the inevitable physics.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">Two flights, two funerals<\/h2>\r\n<p>On its first flight in early 1919, the Bullet\u2019s wings did exactly what unbraced wings do under flight loads: they twisted, failed, and tore away from the fuselage. The aircraft fell from the sky and killed its pilot, Cuthbert Mills. One might think that would be the end of it. It was not. A second Bullet was built \u2014 and on its first flight, the wings failed again, killing a second pilot, Lieutenant Allington Joyce Jolly.<\/p>\r\n<p>Remarkably, Christmas\u2019s reputation survived where his pilots did not. He continued to make extravagant claims about the Bullet\u2019s performance \u2014 claims comfortably unburdened by the fact that the aircraft had never completed a single flight \u2014 and reportedly extracted money from the design for years afterward.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Christmas Bullet endures as aviation\u2019s great cautionary tale: proof that confidence is not competence, that a clean-looking design can be a lethal one, and that the laws of aerodynamics are entirely indifferent to how certain you are that you\u2019ve outsmarted them. Two aircraft. Two flights. Two dead pilots. No aeroplane has ever failed so completely, so quickly, or so fatally.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #888; font-style: italic; margin-top: 28px;\">Sources: Wikipedia (Christmas Bullet); Fear of Landing; The Vintage News; Jalopnik<\/p>\r\n<!-- mf-faq -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-block\"><style>.mf-faq-block{margin:34px 0}.mf-faq-item:not([open]) .mf-faq-answer{display:none !important}.mf-faq-block h2.mf-faq-h{padding-top:22px;margin-bottom:14px}.mf-faq-item{border:1px solid #e2e8f5;border-radius:8px;margin:0 0 10px;background:#fff}.mf-faq-item summary{list-style:none;cursor:pointer;padding:15px 50px 15px 18px;font-weight:600;color:#1a1a1a;position:relative;line-height:1.45;user-select:none}.mf-faq-item summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mf-faq-item summary::after{content:\"+\";position:absolute;right:18px;top:50%;transform:translateY(-50%);font-size:1.5em;font-weight:400;color:#5C91FF;line-height:1}.mf-faq-item[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mf-faq-item[open] summary{border-bottom:1px solid #eef1f8}.mf-faq-item summary:hover{background:#f5f8ff}.mf-faq-answer{padding:14px 18px;color:#333;line-height:1.6}.mf-faq-answer p{margin:0}<\/style>\r\n<h2 class=\"mf-faq-h\">Related Questions<\/h2>\r\n<details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>What was the Christmas Bullet?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>The Christmas Bullet, also called the Cantilever Aero Bullet, was an American biplane built in 1918\u20131919. Designed by physician William Whitney Christmas, it is widely regarded as one of the worst aircraft ever built \u2014 both examples crashed on their first flights, killing their pilots.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>Why is the Christmas Bullet called the worst plane ever?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Because of a catastrophic flaw: its wings had no bracing struts or wires and were meant to \"flex\" like a bird's in flight. Instead they twisted off almost immediately. Both aircraft built were destroyed on their maiden flights, each killing its test pilot.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>Who designed the Christmas Bullet?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Dr. William Whitney Christmas, a physician with no aeronautical engineering training but enormous self-belief and a talent for promotion. He convinced backers to fund his \"flexing wing\" design despite having no sound basis for it.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>What happened to the Christmas Bullet's test pilots?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Both died. The aircraft flew only twice \u2014 once for each of the two examples built \u2014 and both flights ended in fatal crashes when the unbraced wings failed. The design was abandoned after killing both pilots.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>How many Christmas Bullets were built?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Only two were built, in 1918\u20131919. Neither survived its first flight, and the type is remembered chiefly as a cautionary tale about ignoring established aeronautical engineering.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><\/div>\r\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the Christmas Bullet?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Christmas Bullet, also called the Cantilever Aero Bullet, was an American biplane built in 1918\u20131919. Designed by physician William Whitney Christmas, it is widely regarded as one of the worst aircraft ever built \u2014 both examples crashed on their first flights, killing their pilots.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why is the Christmas Bullet called the worst plane ever?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Because of a catastrophic flaw: its wings had no bracing struts or wires and were meant to \\\"flex\\\" like a bird's in flight. 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The design was abandoned after killing both pilots.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many Christmas Bullets were built?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Only two were built, in 1918\u20131919. Neither survived its first flight, and the type is remembered chiefly as a cautionary tale about ignoring established aeronautical engineering.\"}}]}<\/script><!-- \/mf-faq -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f0f4ff; border-left: 4px solid #5C91FF; padding: 16px 20px; margin: 32px 0 8px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 8px; font-weight: 600; color: #333;\">Related Posts<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/strangest-and-weirdest-planes-on-earth\/\">The Strangest and Weirdest Planes on Earth<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\">The Funniest Aircraft Names in History<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are bad aircraft, and then there is the Christmas Bullet \u2014 a machine so misconceived that it holds a record no other aeroplane will ever want: it killed a test pilot on its first flight, and then killed a second test pilot on the first flight of the second example. Two aircraft built. Two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":2422692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2422756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Christmas Bullet: The Plane That Killed Both Pilots<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Christmas Bullet flew twice and killed both its test pilots \u2014 the story of the worst aircraft ever built and the charlatan behind it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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