CBY-3.

This is coolbert:

From a comment to the blog by Dan:

"Since you are enamored with the great satan , FDR, did you know he killed a really great type of plane because of politics: the planes of Vincent Justus Burnelli and his Lifting body concept. Burnelli had the misfortune to have (Arthur?) Pew as one of his backers, a person who was a Republican player."

Thanks Dan and this aeronautical engineer Vincent Justus Burnelli was indeed an innovator. His interest in the flying wing and lifting body not totally unique but Burnelli furthering the concept with actual flying prototypes of some significant capability.

 "Burnelli had a lifelong career devoted to exploiting the advantages of the lifting body airfoil concept that characterized many of his earlier aircraft designs."

 "Flying wing/Lifting body"

 "Burnelli was one of the first American designers to capitalize on the 'flying wing' mystique . . . His goal was to develop a more efficient airplane that could carry a large payload. Although Burnelli referred to his lifting body transports as 'flying wings', his production aircraft invariably retained some kind of a tail, frequently supported by upswept booms that extended rearward. More accurately, Burnelli had a 'lifting body' design, rather than a true 'flying wing' where all major aeronautical components are housed within the wing."

NOT a flying wing as that concept generally understood. An aircraft with a more or less conventional appearance but having a aerodynamically designed fuselage, LIFT added in the process to the entire assemblage. THE LIFTING BODY!

That most successful design of Burnelli the CBY-3. A transport able to out-muscle and out-perform the vaunted DC-3.

"The Burnelli CBY-3 Loadmaster was an unconventional transport aircraft"

The CBY-3 able to carry MORE cargo and take off with a shorter run! Better! It is not without reason the CBY-3 was called the LOADMASTER!

"The CBY-3 'lifting fuselage' was an evolution of the earlier Burnelli UB-14. Burnelli worked as a designer at Canadian Car and Foundry (CanCar) in Montreal, and the CBY-3 was intended for bush operations in northern Canada. The sole prototype was extensively tested but failed to gain a production contract."

Roosevelt [FDR] again considered by many to be a dilettante who dabbled in matters for which he had no expertise.With regard to the military FDR favored the navy, being a patrician blue-blood with yachting experience AND reminding one and all that he [FDR] understood war, having visited on one occasion the front during the Great War, firing a single round from an artillery piece and smelling the carcass of a dead horse. You take it from there!

coolbert.