The Emsco B-8 was a two-seat, single-engine, low-wing, twin boom experimental aircraft designed by
Charles F. Rocheville in 1930 while he was vice president of
Emsco Aircraft Corporation,
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
.
Development
Rocheville sought for a safe, fool-proof airplane with exceptional range, endurance, and payload. He intended to make a non-stop flight from
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
to
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
with navigator
Theo Lundgren, a distance of about .
The aircraft, registered NX55W, first flew on 17 April 1930.
By June 1930 it had been fitted with a
Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior
The Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior is a series of nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial aircraft engines built by the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company from the 1930s to the 1950s. These engines have a displacement of ; initial versions produced ...
nine-cylinder
radial engine
The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...
.
[ Development ended in November 1930 because of lack of funds and the B-8 was scrapped.]
Design
Despite its name 'Flying Wing' the aircraft carried a twin-boom empennage with a single vertical fin. The two crew sat in open tandem cockpits in a central nacelle with circular cross-section, initially with a Continental A-70 in tractor configuration. The nacelle ended in a jet-engine like 'exhaust' nozzle at its rear, which actually was an intake to a boundary-layer bleed system driven by the engine which blew air through spanwise slots in the rear part of the 'Flying Wing' in an attempt to increase the wing's performance. Another unusual characteristic of the design was its “reversed tricycle landing gear” with two main wheels under the front wing and a single aft wheel under the rear-end of the nacelle.
Specifications (Emsco B-8)
See also
References
External links
* Images of the Emsco B-8
{{Emsco aircraft
Twin-boom aircraft
1930s United States experimental aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1930