When the Russians take your best aircraft designers …

East Germany wound up building the Baade 152 I. Three prototypes -- first crashed on its second flight; second made two flights; third never left the ground.

http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Braas/6397.htm

Here’s a four-minute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBELzamCH2c

Huge seats, big windows and food you know citizens of the DDR worker’s paradise never saw.

Taxiing, the 152 looks more like a bomber than a passenger plane.

“The prototype was preparing for a test flight on March 4, 1959. During this flight the landing gear was to be raised for the first time and a low pass was to be made over the Technische Messe at Leipzig to demonstrate the plane to a Russian delegation. Shortly after takeoff however the pilot encountered a problem and decided to return to the airport. On approach the airplane stalled and crashed.

“Although the crash was officially attributed to ‘pilot error’, it is thought that the fuel flow to the engines stopped while descending towards Klotzsche. This was a recurring problem that was detected on later test flights.”

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19590304-1

When politics won’t allow blaming the approved design, blame the dead pilot.