On December 8th, 1955, we observed flights of the Custer CCW-5 at Oxnard, California. The aircraft cleared the ground in 221 feet against a five mile breeze; it climbed at an angle of about 12 degrees and attained a minimum level flight air speed of approximately 22 m.p.h., which is more than 50 m.p.h. slower than its calculated stalling speed. Time and weather did not permit accurate measurement of other performances.

The Custer Channel Wing CCW-5 is a monoplane having a seven foot channel fitted on each side of a Baumann Brigadier fuselage, with an additional wing area of 54.5 square feet attached to each outer end of the channels. The span of the aircraft is nearly 41 feet, and its area would be 193 square feet, if the two seven foot channels were replaces with wing sections having the same six foot chord as the channels. The outer wings are tapered in plan form, with an 85 inch chord at the channels and a 37 inch chord at the tips. A N.A.C.A. 4418 air foil is used. The tail group is the same as the Baumann Brigadier. The aircraft has a retractable tri-cycle landing gear which gives the wing and channels a ground angle of 2 degrees to the horizontal.

The empty weight of the aircraft, including oil, is 3,675 lbs. The all up weight on the observed flights was 4,255 lbs. at take-off.

The aircraft is powered with two O-470 Continental engines rated at 225 h.p. at 2,600 r.p.m. The power curves supplied with the engines show that one engine developed 220 h.p. at the factory on its acceptance test and the other 218 h.p. However, for take-off and for minimum flight speed the propellers were set to allow 2,900 r.p.m., at 29 inches of manifold pressure, which can be extrapolated on the power curves to a reading of about 245 h.p. per engine.

The take-off was made on a hard surface runway on the Oxnard Airport, which is 45 feet above sea level. The wind at the time was measured at 5 m.p.h. parallel to the runway. The weather was clear and the air temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

As flown, the wing loading of the aircraft, based on the calculated 193 square feet, was 22 lbs. per square foot. The power loading at the rated power was 9.44 lbs. per h.p.

The aircraft was flown with standard conventional fixed pitch Hartzell propellers, 7 foot in diameter. We understand new controllable propellers of special design have been ordered for this aircraft, but were not delivered in time for the flights we observed. continue...