The early days of aviation saw the creation of numerous aircraft of such bizarre appearance that they frequently leave modern observers wondering what their designers could have been thinking. One example was the Sloan Bicurve, a biplane of distinctive appearance, even in its own day. The Bicurve is worth remembering, however, if only because evidence exists that the strange airplane actually flew.

Between 1910 and 1912, American expatriate Jacques-Jules Sloan built a series of biplanes he called Bicurves in his small workshop in the Paris suburb