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Tests conducted during the NACA Era at NASA Langley Research Center’s Free Flight Tunnel which is now known as the 12 foot Low Speed Tunnel.
General Arrangement of the Wind Tunnel Model
One little known and poorly documented aircraft was known as the “Kaiser Tailless Airplane.” While information available to the author is extremely limited, it appears that the Kaiser Tailless Airplane was designed for Henry Kaiser, the American industrialist who produced the Liberty Ships during World War II. In 1942, Kaiser proposed using very large flying boats to ferry troops and supplies from the US to Britain, bypassing the dreaded German U-Boat wolfpacks. Kaiser formed a partnership with Howard Hughes to produce the HK-1 Hercules (the “Spruce Goose”), but it appears that Kaiser had at least one other design studied.
The Kaiser Tailless Airplane was a flying wing of somewhat unconventional layout. The wing was given minimal dihedral; the trailing edge swept forward more steeply than the leading edge swept back, giving the vehicle almost the appearance of forward sweep. Four piston engines were mounted well forward of the wing centerbody, with a large dorsal fin directly aft of each engine. A cockpit bubble appears above the wing centerline. The full scale vehicle was to have a span of 290 feet/ 88.4 meters, a wing area of 7920 square feet/ 736 square meters, and a gross weight of 175,000 pounds/ 79,545 kilograms.
A 1/7 scale wind tunnel model, built by Kaiser Cargo, Inc. was supplied to Langley Field, Virginia, for wind tunnel testing. The results were reported in March of 1946.
By Scott Lowther
APR, models, drawings & documents
