If powered, spinning sausages are a better choice than airfoils for lift, why is there no airplane with spinning cylindrical wings, after all these 100 years?
The concept of the Flettner rotor was first devised by Finnish inventor and architect Sigurd Savonius and German engineer Anton Flettnerin the 1920s . The first Atlantic crossing – by a vessel using Flettner rotors only – took place in 1926.
And by the way, Goodyear built airplanes with inflatable wings 66 years ago:
