[PLMerite]

A little too reminiscent of the Spruce Goose for comfort:

[Calvin Locke]

IIRC, the Spruce Goose was the first to employ multiplier hydraulics for its [massive] control surfaces. That is, whatever force the pilot applied got amped up by 10x or whatever it was, to compensate for not only the mass, but the increased forces acting on the larger control area.

Frankly, the photo reminds me of the WWII German attempt at marrying two craft together for very heavy transport.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

#22: Spruce Goose. Then the largest US plane. Never got off the ground. A Howard Hughes fiasco.

The Germans had a larger seaplane that actually did fly and I met the American pilot that destroyed it in WW2. He also shot down two ME262’s one on the ground and one taking off.

His name possibly was George Drew. You can see a front camera film from his P-47 when he blew up a train in France full of ammo. The flames scorched his underside and wings.