The early history of aviation featured a bunch of fascinating ideas about how to get a craft airborne, but ultimately, it would be the Wright brothers’ design that would go on to inform most subsequent flying machines. That said, this doesn’t mean that a plane with two conventional wings is the only way to put something in the sky. There are plenty of ways to make that happen, and as YouTuber PeterSripol demonstrated, one of those methods involves a pair of KFC buckets (via Sploid).

The video above documents the process start to finish, and it begins by going to KFC and convincing the teenage employee to snag them a couple of fresh buckets. Once that was settled, he went about creating his craft out of some foam core board, some mechanical components, and, of course, the buckets. After one failed attempt, the design was revised, and sure enough, they ended up with a craft more than capable of taking a controlled flight.

The reason this works is because of something called the Magnus effect. In essence, if an airborne object like a sphere or a cylinder gets enough spin, it will curve from a straight flight path based on the way air travels around the spinning object. This is the same force that lead to that viral gliding basketball video from a couple years ago, by the way.

Do you think this sort of design would be practical on a larger plane, or is it more of a scientific novelty reserved for hobbyists? Give us a shout on Twitter and share your thoughts!

Featured image: PeterSripol/YouTube