Word: lippisch
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...Lippisch escaped from Vienna just ahead of the invading Russians. He now works for the Collins Radio Co. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which has an embryo aeronautical division. His aerodyne* (he refuses to have it called an airplane), which has flown only in the form of small electrically powered models, is truly wingless. It looks like a fuselage with no wings, and it gets its lift from a blast of air blown out through a big hole in its belly. The air comes in through the nose, is compressed and speeded up by a jet engine driving internal propellers. Then...
Control Jets. According to Lippisch, there is no doubt that the internal lift will be sufficient to keep the ship in the air. The big problem is control, which is accomplished by deflecting jets of air and gas in the desired directions. His electric models, which simulate the control problem of a full-scale aerodyne, fly very well. Attached to an electric cable, to supply power and control signals, they rise on an even keel, circle around a hangar, hover indefinitely and land without a jolt...
...Wrights' pioneer airplane," says Dr. Lippisch, "was a glider and an auto engine and a windmill. Airplanes are still powered gliders." Working with gliders, delta wings and rocket planes, he has long dreamed of an aircraft that would fly without supporting wings. "Wings are for the birds," he says. "They heat up, and they increase drag. In supersonic flight they create sound and shock waves. Energy is lost. For economy, you have to have an internal flow process. You can reflect and extinguish these shock waves on the opposite walls of the channel that you put them through...
Slow Marvels. This is what the aerodyne does, says Dr. Lippisch. He thinks that the design will be more suited to large aircraft than small. So far, his aerodyne is strictly experimental, and he does not want to predict when it will come into flying use. "I developed the delta-wing aircraft back in the '30s," he says, "and look at the time it took to develop them. I ran into the same trouble that I am running into now. Everyone marvels, but the development away from conventional, conservative systems is hard to get started...
Support for Dr. Lippisch's work has come from the Office of Naval Research and Collins Radio. The Air Force has shown little interest. Dr. Lippisch hopes to have a piloted, 2,500-lb. aerodyne flying in 1956. Then, he dreams, the Air Force generals may look...