This is a little off topic, but interesting. I was watching the Wings channel the other day and they were showing aviation in Germany before WWII. They were banned from most powered planes so they did mostly gliders. You could tell that there was not much aerodynamic theory known when many where built. The documnetary showed many crashing and many flying. Some actually flew very well.

One in particular had no vertical stab whatsoever. The glider made it maybe a hundred feet before yawing uncontollably and spinning in. OUCH!