The Burnelli Conspiracy...

[Hauksbee 103]

A few years back, when I was still building 3-D computer models, I ran across a B/W illustration of the airplane below. There was no name or information about it, but I wanted one and built it. I didn't know at the time if it had ever existed or if it was just an Art Deco illustration. Last week I discovered the appended article. It was indeed real. 'Turns out that the designer, Vincent Burnelli devoted his life to promoting lifting body airfoil aircraft. He was brilliant in design, but had poor luck in getting his planes into production. I don't know why the author titled this piece "The Burnelli Conspiracy", but he did.

 

 

The Burnelli Conspiracy

 

The Address By Chalmers H. Goodlin on the occasion of his induction into the Niagara Frontier Aviation Hall of Fame May 15, 1987

The Vincent Justus Burnelli story started in Temple, Texas, in 1895. For the sake of brevity, I will pick it up in 1919, when young Vincent designed and built America's first great airliner, the 26-passenger Lawson [Ed.-- see picture on right]. This airliner was unique in its day and even flew a large number of congressmen around Washington in demonstration flights. But Burnelli considered it to be merely a streetcar with wings. Consequently, he designed and built the world's first lifting body in 1921, an airplane with an airfoil fuselage, the RB-1 , which could carry 32 passengers . In 1924, he built the RB-2 which, at that time, was the world's largest airfreighter. It could carry two automobiles and served as an Essex flying showroom for a time. The elevators and rudders were attached to the fuselage trailing edge, but it was learned that this arrangement did not provide adequate longitudinal and directional control. Therefore, when Burnelli built his next airplane, the CB-16 , in 1927 America's first multi-engined plush executive airplane with retractable landing gear he added twin booms to obviate the stability deficiencies of his first two lifting body airplanes. This airplane, incidentally, was the first twin engine airplane that could offer single engine capability at design gross weight.

Burnelli next built the amazing GX- 3 for the Guggenheim Safety Contest in 1929, in which he produced the first break-away leading edge in combination with high-lift trailing edge flaps. This feature is now quite common on most jet transport aircraft. Burnelli told me how the F.A.A. then called the C.A.A. ordered him to bolt the leading edges shut, as they were a hazard to safe flying.

 

[33LIMA 972]

Mmmm...looking at that screenie, I'm tempted to track down my Crimson Skies CD and see if I can get her up and running!

 

[Burning Beard 14]

Here is a paper model of a Burnelli UB14 I built a while back in a "what if" scheme.  I read somewhere that Charles DeGaulle used one as a personal aircraft.

 

Beard 

[Hauksbee 103]

Mmmm...looking at that screenie, I'm tempted to track down my Crimson Skies CD and see if I can get her up and running!

33LIMA: That video clip made me sorry I missed out on "Crimson Sky"...but I ended up spending an hour and a half on YouTube Watching the adventures of others.

 

Burning Beard: When you say "paper model", I presume you mean balsa sticks and paper? I spent years as a kid making stick and paper models; cutting out formers with half of a Gillette Blue Blade razor blade, with a piece of adhesive tape on the backside. Damned fine looking model. What company issued the kit?

Edited July 28, 2017 by Hauksbee

[Hauksbee 103]

Here's some out-takes that I didn't have room for above. As mentioned above, Burnelli  devoted his entire life to promoting fuselage-as-airfoil planes. He died in 1964. His last design was a "edge-of-the-atmosphere transport.

 

[Burning Beard 14]

No Hauksbee, I mean card stock.  You print it out on your printer, cut it out, form the shapes and glue it together.  The advantage being it is already painted, if you screw something up you can reprint it, and you can change it with programs like Gimp.  This plane was from Murph's Models and was a free download.  I didn't like the graphics on the model so I changed them to the what if scheme which I just made up.  

 

Here is another one that I shamelessly stole the WOFF scheme made by OVS.  There were a bunch of modifications on this one, which was a Fiddlers Green kit which has also been offered for free (there are a ton of free paper model kits out there).  This one was built a four or five years ago, when I first started the (what I call) idiot hobby.

 

Beard