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The Horton HW-X-26-52 Wingless [N39C] was a highly-modified Cessna UC-78 Bobcat with a more airfoil-shaped fuselage than wing — although the original airframe's lines were really not apparent in the finished product! It was Horton's second experiment (the first being a single-engined lifting-body type [N87698]) and was designed and built by Bill Horton in a three-way partnership with Howard Hughes and Harlow Curtice (of General Motors fame). The aircraft was not of riveted construction but was a welded steel frame covered with a fabric skin and powered by two Pratt and Whitney R-985 radial engines.The Wingless failed not because the it didn't or couldn't fly... Actually it logged around 160 hrs of flight time before Bill Horton had a falling out with Howard Hughes. The latter wanted to take full credit for the patents and production rights, which Horton refused to do. To prove that money talks, Hughes slapped a law suit on Horton that effectively stopped any further development of the aircraft until this day. Hughes managed to have Horton railroaded to prison on trumped up charges and to get both the prototype and its partially constructed production version moved to a bone yard and destroyed.Much more info and lots of pics in this forum's fascinating thread about William Horton's wingless designs, built and unbuilt:http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5996.0.htm
The Horton HW-X-26-52 Wingless [N39C] was a highly-modified Cessna UC-78 Bobcat with a more airfoil-shaped fuselage than wing — although the original airframe's lines were really not apparent in the finished product! It was Horton's second experiment (the first being a single-engined lifting-body type [N87698]) and was designed and built by Bill Horton in a three-way partnership with Howard Hughes and Harlow Curtice (of General Motors fame). The aircraft was not of riveted construction but was a welded steel frame covered with a fabric skin and powered by two Pratt and Whitney R-985 radial engines.
The Wingless failed not because the it didn't or couldn't fly... Actually it logged around 160 hrs of flight time before Bill Horton had a falling out with Howard Hughes. The latter wanted to take full credit for the patents and production rights, which Horton refused to do. To prove that money talks, Hughes slapped a law suit on Horton that effectively stopped any further development of the aircraft until this day. Hughes managed to have Horton railroaded to prison on trumped up charges and to get both the prototype and its partially constructed production version moved to a bone yard and destroyed.
Much more info and lots of pics in this forum's fascinating thread about William Horton's wingless designs, built and unbuilt:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5996.0.htm
