Word: designs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Until 1968 Richard Kline's only experience with aeronautical engineering was folding paper airplanes for his young son Gary. Then one day, Kline, an advertising agency art director in New York, stumbled on a radically new design; it flew more stably than any previous model, and a lot farther as well. He showed the airfoil to a pilot friend, Floyd Fogleman, who concluded that Kline had inadvertently discovered "a whole new concept in aerodynamics...
...former NASA official, also became a believer after Kline sailed a model of his new glider practically the length of Notre Dame's practice football field. In subsequent wind-tunnel tests, the scientist confirmed what Kline already believed: that his wing was a true breakthrough in aerodynamic design, one that greatly resists stalling. Exactly why that is so remains a mystery...
...being curved like most airfoils, Kline's wing is completely flat, at least on top. From the leading edge to almost halfway back, the cross section of the wing gradually thickens into a wedge. Then, the underside sweeps abruptly upward. It is this step that apparently gives the design its advantage over conventional airfoils. Tests show that it can provide lift even when it is tilted at an angle far greater than 19° to the onrushing air; it is around that angle that conventional wings begin to lose their lift, causing stalls...
Enthusiastic as ever about the design, Kline and Fogleman would like to license manufacturing rights, possibly to an aircraft company. They are also considering mass-producing the paper wing as a toy. Whatever use they finally make of it, Kline's creation has already achieved a distinction: it was recently granted U.S. patent No. 3,706,430, perhaps the only one ever derived from a paper airplane...
...Design Review Board would include five members, all appointed by the City Manager--two architects, one landscape architect, one citizen recommended by the Chamber of Commerce, and one resident of the Harvard Square area...