Willard Ray Custer

Who was Willard Ray Custer?

Willard Ray Custer was an American engineer and aircraft visionary, inventor of the channel wing concept. He was a great grandnephew of George Armstrong Custer.

Custer left school at age 13, working as a blacksmith, and later an engineer and mechanic.

The inspiration to the channel wing concept came in 1925, when Custer had observed how the roof of a barn was lifted during a very strong gust of wind. He started investigating the phenomenon, and by 1928 he had developed the first Model of a new air plane wing that he subsequently, in 1929, filed a patent for. This channel wing managed much lift even at very low airspeeds, and allowed start and landing on very short airfields.

In 1939 Custer founded the National Aircraft Corporation, and on November 12 1942 started development of the CCW-1 experimental aircraft. With the CCW-2 that followed, he could achieve almost vertical starts, and flight almost like a helicopter. The military started a number of trials, that was subsequently cancelled despite some interesting achievements. Later, Custer founded the Custer ChannelWing Corporation, and in 1954 built more aircraft. The last one, the CCW-5, almost reach series production.