While the Burgess-Dunne tailless has carved out a noted niche in aeronautical history...
far less known is an improved version.
Developed after the company was reorganized under a new management team,
it would be forgotten as the Burgess-Dunn-Dunn Tailless II.
Given the nickname of one of the partners...
...it was perhaps no surprise that their first modern tailless aircraft was a float plane.
After a few public test-flights, France expressed a sort of bored, world-weary interest and ordered a test example for their Aéronavale.
The aircraft was so hideously ugly that it was immediately exiled as far away as possible and sent over 4,000 miles to French Guiana where it was intended for air policing duties.
Known as the Burgess-Dunn-Dunn float plane fighter in company documents, it was colloquially referred to as the ptérodactyle due the similarity of its appearance with the flying dinosaur although the unfortunate ground crew tasked with maintaining simply called it "
le Ugly".
Almost as soon as the unusual aircraft was un-crated and made ready for flight, trouble erupted which would test the float plane's capabilities to the utmost.
The trouble started in the capitol city Cayenne over the price paid for the nation's leading cash crop.
The international pepper markets had cratered due to a bumper New Mexican crop and as the economic devastation spread throughout French Guiana, things became desperate.
Officially known as the Cayenne Riots, it was erroneously dubbed the Cayenne Pepper Revolt by the only American reporter on the scene, a free-lance stringer who was suffering from a blistering hang-over.
The story of the unrest in French Guiana was picked up by other U.S. newspapers and sensationalized as the Red Hot Chili Pepper War. This would lead to great confusion among future high-school history students.
The scrappy little floatplane was ordered into the air to help quell the civil unrest, but immediatly suffered engine trouble and was forced to land when the pilot spotted a dock-side seafood bar and realized it was time for lunch.
Unable to take off again, the aircraft was floated back to base for repairs, but by then international pepper markets had stabilized and the streets of Cayenne were peaceful once more.
The French Aéronavale made one attempt to rid themselves of this ungainly, unstylish aircraft. A sale was proposed to the land-locked desert nation of the North Sub-Saharan Sultanate.
Unfortunately for the French, His Most Excellent Excellency the CLXVII Sultan of the N. Sub-Saharan Sultanate was obstinate and would not raise his offer so the sale fell through.
While this was good for the Sultan, it was bad for the French and the scrappy little float plane which eventually rotted away from neglect sometime ca. 1939.
Brian da Basher