Nemeth Parasol was a prototype of a

taildragger Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

tractor configuration In aviation, a tractor configuration is a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft with its engine mounted with the propeller in front, so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. This is the usual configuration; the pusher configuration ...

airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...

with

circular wing A circular wing is a disc-shaped wing having the outer planform of a circle. If the aircraft has no fuselage or tail the disc-shaped craft is sometimes described as a ''flying saucer''. If the entire disc rotates it is called a ''disc wing''. Dis ...

set in a

parasol An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy (building), canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is usually designed to protect a person against rain. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionall ...

configuration. It was designed by Steven Nemeth from

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, and made its first flight in 1934. The goal was to have a plane that could be stored in a large garage as opposed to a

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

and that it would be relatively easy to fly. Nemeth did

wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...

tests at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1929. Nemeth worked with students from

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public university, public research university in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the second-oldest List of colleges and universities in Ohio, university in Ohi ...

in 1934 to help him build the plane's wings. Nemeth used his custom "roundwing" on an Alliance A-1 Argo two-seat biplane fuselage. The high-wing monoplane had multiple struts to hold the custom "roundwing". The wing had a diameter of including the flaps and

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

s. The plane reached a top speed of . Thanks to the large wing, the plane could take off in just . Tests were done with stall speeds, turning off the engine in flight, and using the wings as a

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

. The parachute-stall landing gave the plane a short 25 feet of landing to stop. The original 90 hp Lambert engine in the Alliance A-1 was replaced with a

Warner Scarab The Warner Scarab is an American seven-cylinder radial engine, radial aircraft engine, that was manufactured by the Warner Aircraft Corporation of Detroit, Michigan in 1928 through to the early 1940s. In military service the engine was designate ...

120 hp engine. Nemeth did two years of testing but did not get any interest in producing more. The fate of the one plane built is unknown. Nemeth’s success gave others ideas and other

experimental aircraft An experimental aircraft is an aircraft intended for testing new aerospace technologies and design concepts. The term ''research aircraft'' or '' testbed aircraft'', by contrast, generally denotes aircraft modified to perform scientific studies, ...

with circular wings were built later like the

Sack AS-6 The Sack AS-6 was a German prototype Circular wing, circular-winged aircraft built privately during the Second World War. Design and development In July 1938, local farmer Arthur Sack entered his AS-1 circular-winged model in the first Reich-W ...

, the

Vought XF5U The Vought XF5U "Flying Flapjack" was an experimental U.S. Navy fighter aircraft designed by Charles H. Zimmerman for Vought during World War II. This unorthodox design consisted of a flat, somewhat disc-shaped body (resembling a flying flapj ...

and the

Avrocar The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar is a VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Canada as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War. The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust f ...

. (Note: Nemeth is sometimes spelled Nuneth.) Steven P. Nemeth was a flight instructor at the

McCook Field McCook Field was an airfield and aviation experimentation station in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It was operated by the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps and its successor the United States Army Air Service from 1917 to 1927. It was named f ...

near Dayton, Ohio, which closed in 1927. The successful test flights made it into some newspapers and magazines.

Modern Mechanix ''Mechanix Illustrated'' is an American printed magazine that was originally published by Fawcett Publications. Its title was founded in 1928 to compete against the older ''Popular Science'' and ''Popular Mechanics''. Billed as "The How-To-Do M ...

and

Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

both had articles on the special new plane.

Specifications

(Note: Stall speed was called 0 mph, as the engine was turned off for the landing test.)

References

External links

The Nemeth Parasol – A Parachuting Plane
Ed Nash's Military Matters, YouTube Single-engined tractor aircraft Circular-wing aircraft Parasol-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1934 {{aero-stub