Custer Channel Wing

[IanR]

While in the US for work last week I visited a museum that had some interesting aircraft. This one is really weird - the company made 5 prototypes in the mid 60s - apparently it could fly without the extensions of the wings - they just put them on to make it look more normal to people. They also used differential thrust rather than ailerons - tricky.

 

This one is one of two still in existence - the other being in the Smithsonian

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Differential thrust rather than ailerons.? What was the designer on? The test pilot would need some too. Nev

 

 

[Deskpilot]

High speed air being sucked through the channel gave a lot more lift..................apparently. Here's my Inverted Chunnel Experimental with Vectored Thrust. VT-ICE In this case, the Chunnel (mixture of channel and tunnel) dosent provide any extra lift, just a different look and a sun shade for the pilot ;-)

 

 

 

[facthunter]

And a lot of extra work for the builder.Nev

 

 

[IanR]

According to what I was told the theory was that lift was more due to the speed of the air over the wing rather than the speed through the air thus the design. This extrapolated that change in thrust changed the lift due to the design thus no need for ailerons !! I asked whether the thrust was tied in to the controls for this purpose but no, apparently done with the thrust levers !!

 

One thing that I thought is that loss of an engine in this situation would not be a good thing !

 

 

[facthunter]

Certainly wouldn't control with one engine out. Also the coordination would be difficult. probably end up like dutch roll at high altitude. Nev