Why didn’t everyone want this “U Wing” plane that was so difficult to crash?  19:33 long video.

By RexResearch: The idea of the channel wing predates most of those reading this. It all began in the 1920s, when Willard Custer took shelter in a barn during a near-hurricane velocity storm. Much to his surprise and fascination, the barn roof suddenly lifted off and soared through the air. He wondered why an airplane had to gather speed on a runway, while a barn roof, a poor airfoil by any reckoning, could fly from a standing start. He soon realized that it was the speed of the air over the surface, not the speed of the surface through the air, that created lift.

                                                        Custer’s Channel Wing 5 seconds into takeoff

Bernoulli principle in both cases, but an application that had eluded aviation up to that time. He settled on the idea of pulling the air through channels that were, in fact, the lower half of a venturi. He was reversing the normal method of powered flight. Instead of using the engines to move the airfoil through the air, he used the engine to move the air through the airfoil. His channel had the effect of going several hundred miles per hour, due to the induced air flow, while standing still. The airflow over the surface of the channel created conventional lift, and a lot of it. It was at this point that Custer settled on,” It’s the speed of the air, not the airspeed,” which became his mantra: “AEROPHYSICS”.

If you click on the RexResearch link at the beginning of this article, you will find a wealth of new and well-presented information about both Mr. Custer and his remarkable STOL Flying Machines.

Cover of Popular Mechanics Magazine from May of 1947

Channel Wing with Inventor Willard Custer

Two-place light plane envisioned by Willard Custer, held by Harold ‘Curley’ Custer himself

                                                               CW-1 in the Smithsonian Museum