Lockheed XFV-1
The United States military came up with a number of bizarre ideas in the 1950s — remember the jet with a nuclear reactor on it? — and regrettably, a lot of these concepts made it to the testing phase, and sometimes beyond.
The Lockheed XFV-1 was a plane that could take off vertically, which was advantageous for a variety of reasons. Regrettably, the designers also mandated that pilots land vertically, and even backwards. Oh, and the plane’s engine had a nasty habit of tearing itself apart.