The CCW-1 was later flown in demonstration for the military at the Beltsville, Maryland airport, where gruff, hard boiled Brigadier General W.E. Gilmore was excited enough to authorize a test program. Custer recalls that Gilmore actually phoned Orville Wright, who was in Washington at the time, urging him to come out and witness the new development.

The testing program which began on June 6, 1944 proved to be typical of the entire series of government tests of the channel wing concept, generating mixed conclusions, controversy and zero satisfaction to anyone.

The report, Army Air Forces Technical Report No. 5142, concluded that the lift generated by the channel was similar to the increment of lift generated by normal slipstream velocity in conventional wing/propeller arrangements. Unfortunately, the conclusion did not restate the point made in the report that the channel generated more lift than the conventional arrangement. The report stated further that while the channel was markedly inferior to the helicopter in producing static lift, it was superior to conventional wing-propeller arrangements in this regard, and in producing lift with forward velocity.

The final conclusion was startling, for the report stated that "the device does not show sufficient promise of military value to justify further development by the Army Air Forces." This is surprising in that the improvement of static lift over a conventional wing/propeller arrangement was marked, and high lift devices in the form of flaps, slats and slots were under intensive development at the time.

The verdict typified the testing process, which never validated or denied what should have been the basic question, i.e. "Did the channel wing have characteristics of sufficient value when compared to other high-lift devices to warrant further development?"

Instead, the government denied that the channel wing was as good as a helicopter, and Custer compounded the problem by insinuating that it was indeed as useful as a helicopter.

Custer made an immediate and lasting interpretation of the test results, one which did not help the controversy. He inferred that perhaps the results were too good, and might actually be a threat to the then infant helicopter industry, which was receiving tremendous backing from the armed services. The first reaction to a charge like this is to shrug -- it sounds too much like the stories of "60 miles per gallon carburetors" which have allegedly been suppressed over the years. Yet there are other arguments which makes (sic) one wonder. continue...