Willard Ray Custer (,

Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania Warfordsburg is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Bethel Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies just north of the Mason-Dixon line, near Interstate 70 in Pennsylvania, Interstat ...

Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's List of municipalities in Maryland, sixth-most popu ...

) was an American engineer and aircraft visionary, inventor of the

channel wing The channel wing is an aircraft wing principle developed by Willard Ray Custer in the 1920s. The most important part of the wing consists of a half-tube with an engine placed in the middle, driving a propeller placed at the rear end of the chan ...

concept. Custer left school at age 13, working as a blacksmith and, later, an engineer and mechanic. The inspiration to the channel wing concept came in 1925 when Custer had observed how the roof of a barn was lifted during a very strong gust of wind. He started investigating the phenomenon and, by 1928, he had developed the first Model of a new airplane wing for which he received a patent in 1929. This

managed much lift even at very low airspeeds and allowed start and landing on very short airfields. In 1939 Custer founded the ''National Aircraft Corporation'' and, on , started development of the CCW-1 (CusterChannelWing 1)

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 the CCW-2 that followed, he could achieve almost vertical starts, and flight almost like a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

. The military started a number of trials which were subsequently canceled despite some interesting achievements. Later, Custer founded the ''Custer ChannelWing Corporation'' and, in 1954, built more aircraft. The last one, the CCW-5, almost reached series production. The principle of the channel wing was not well understood by many, especially at the time. Custer was an experimenter and visionary, with many patents filed, but he did not have a strong theoretical and scientific background. The Custer Channelwing Corporation had to cease its activities, and the channel wing principle was mostly forgotten. Today, only two CCW aircraft survive. The CCW-1 is displayed at the Smithsonian´s

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

Suitland, Maryland Suitland is a suburb of Washington, D.C., approximately one mile (1.6 km) southeast of Washington, D.C. Suitland is a census designated place (CDP), as of the 2020 census, its population was 25,839. Prior to 2010, it was part of the Suitland ...

, while the CCW-5 is at the

Mid-Atlantic Air Museum The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum (MAAM) is an aviation museum and aircraft restoration facility located at Reading Regional Airport in Reading, Pennsylvania. The museum, founded by Russ Strine, the current President, collects and actively restores h ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

References

External links

Custer ChannelWing Corp.

the Aviation History Online Museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Custer, Willard Ray 1899 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American engineers American aerospace engineers Aviation inventors Businesspeople in aviation Engineers from Pennsylvania People from Fulton County, Pennsylvania