ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Flettner airplane

Okay, kiddo! Have you ever seen a helicopter before? It's a cool machine that can fly in the air by spinning its rotor blades really fast. Well, a flettner airplane is kind of like a helicopter, but instead of using rotor blades, it uses something called a 'rotating cylinder'.

Imagine a long, vertical tube with a rounded end. Now, imagine that this tube is spinning really fast - so fast that the air around it starts to swirl and get sucked inside. This creates some strange effects that can actually make the tube rise up into the air, like magic!

That's what a flettner airplane is all about. It's an airplane that uses this strange effect to fly, using two or more rotating cylinders that spin around really quickly to generate lift and move through the air. It's not very common, but some people think it's a really cool idea because it's more efficient than a traditional helicopter or airplane, and it doesn't even need wings to stay up in the sky!
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