Prone Piloting

[Mossie]

This is a fictional aircraft, the 'Espadon' or Swordfish from the comic book 'Le Secret de l'Espadon', it's kitted by Sharkit.  It was an atomic powered aircraft with the pilot in the prone position & had an escape capsule.  Fictional, but the long, slim fuselage & the escape capsule gives the an idea of how things may have been.

[Mossie]

I found these while trawling the net, some glider designs by Jerry Blumenthal, apparently a model engineer for several companies including Monogram & a wind tunnel model designer for General Dynamics.  These show to the extreme how an aircraft can be designed around the pilot, of course being gliders there is no powerplant, fuel or weapons to worry about.  Found them on this site, which has a few other interesting designs too, Jerry seems to have liked things to be as compact as possible!

http://www.twitt.org/BLUMENTHAL.htm