As a fitting example of independent, persevering aeronautical pioneering, on July 4th, the first production model of the 5-place Custer Channel Wing CCW-5 was rolled out of the company's hangar at the Hagerstown, Md., Municipal Airport, christened and demonstrated. Although this gleaming all-metal aircraft is entirely new, its design is not. Designer Willard R. Custer has spent 25 years in full-time research and development of the vertical lift concept embodied in the half-moon wing configuration. Single and twin engine scale models were built and test flown from 1927 through 1940; these were followed by test flights of single and twin engine aircraft from 1943 to 1952. The prototype twin-engine all metal CCW-5 (photo, upper left), flying since 1953, took off in less than 100 feet on its maiden flight, and the company reports that it has hovered at from zero to 11-mph, although the craft is actually a STOL type. (Remaining six photos here are of the latest Custer).

The Custer Channel Wing is unconventional in that its wing channels replace such conventional aerodynamic devices as wing flaps and slots to provide required lift. In the Custer system, the powerplant is suspended in the channel with the propeller at the trailing edge. By drawing the air through the semi-circular wing at high velocities, pressures over the curved lifting surface are decreased to a much greater degree than in conventional wing configurations.

Actually, the Custer utilizes a Boundary Layer Control effect to create its greater lift. According to Custer, conventional aircraft obtain lift coefficients of approximately 3 through the use of high lift devices, whereas the CCW craft have demonstrated power-on lift coefficients of 5. Designer Custer further claims 100% greater lift capabilities for his, using standard airfoil section, propellers and engines, compared to other aircraft using similar airfoil/power combination.

Depending upon climatic conditions and weight, the Channel Wing configuration permits the craft to take-off in distances ranging from a 75 foot ground roll, down to virtually zero length, although high temperatures (95 degrees) will boost the run to 250 feet.

The CCW-5 is conventional all-metal aircraft construction, except for the compound curve section of the channels, which are of fiberglass. The channels, a web and rib structure using a main and secondary spar, are made of aluminum. Each spar has two sets of cap angles. The ribs tie into the cap angles and web. The metal and fiberglass channel skins are wrapped around the ribs. The engines are suspended in the channels by tubular steel frameworks with the frames mounted to the wing spars and two pylons supporting each engine.

The Custer Channel uses a 4418 airfoil section with a 6 foot chord. Each propeller, located slightly aft of channel trailing edge, is a thin tipped 7 foot diameter full-feathering Hartzell with its tips trimmed. In rotation the tips deflect forward to close the channel; at 2625-rpm air is sucked through the channel over the airfoil at 115-mph to provide the BLC and lift effect. Designer Custer reports that about 15 years work went into his channel/propeller set-up.

The prototype CCW-5 utilized a redesigned Baumann "Brigadier" airframe; the production prototype was constructed from the same jigs. Later craft incorporates only a few changes, mainly fairings at the channel roots and configuration change of the wing trailing edge, plus latest version of the 260-hp Continental engines which were moved slightly aft. The CCW Corporation reports initial orders for 40 CCW-5's, 20 of which are slated for a West Coast distributor to be sold as executive and utility craft. FAA Type Certificate is expected by July 1965, at which time 6 to 8 craft should be well along on a production line. Price is $65,000 with standard equipment.

See Air Progress pictures