The little man with the gray hair, rimless spectacles, a slight limp and leaning on a can stood before a bleacher's section set up at the Marine's Quantico Air Station and spoke in firm tones about a flying "principle" which he had adapted to a plane and wanted the top echelon of the armed services to witness for themselves.

Meanwhile, the plane, brain child of Willard R. Custer of Hagerstown, Maryland, was wheeling toward the bleachers, disclosing something unique in wing design and "old hat" in propulsion, namely, pusher-type of prop motors but geared to a half-barrel wing design. Like Columbus standing the egg on end, Mr. Custer's demonstration was all very simple--if you knew how. By dint of Custer's "know-how" and the financial support of some pioneer automotive and aviation friends--including spectacular Joseph W. Frazier, erstwhile GMAC executive, Chrysler Motors sales manager and organizer of Kaiser-Frazier Corporation--Willard Custer's day seemed close at hand.

For now he found himself acting as ring-master ready to put his trained seal through its acts which boasted (a) ability to be airborne in 5 seconds; (b) take-off distance under 200 feet; (c) landing speed, 15 mph; (d) rate of climb 2,500 feet per minute with (e) a service ceiling of 20,000 feet; and (f) a range of 1,150 miles. Moreover, Will Custer claimed a "hoverability" for his channel wing plane almost duplicating the same characteristics of a helicopter--such a key factor in the Marine attack technique of amphibious warfare.

And so at length the little man with the rimless glasses was ready to put his trained seal through its performance test for the benefit of a dazzling array of military uniform and rank at Quantico, Virginia on a bright September noon.

The first step of this two-motor "pusher" with its half barrel wing was the take off. Goal was 5 seconds. Willard Custer counted aloud over a microphone from a stop watch--"5-4-3-2-1"--by the time he intoned "one" the 4,900 pound load was airborne in a take off of less than 200 feet of runway.

The trained seal performed for the boss perfectly, notably during its "hover" maneuver and its slow glide to landing at 15 mph. Test pilot Wm. Atrill of Montreal where the plane will be manufactured, stepped out of cockpit pleased with Custer's trained seal.

Is this, asked every questioning eye, the potential answer to the military services' requirement for a fighting aircraft which can take off and land in short distances? Have Willard Custer and his associates developed a plane which successfully employs the channel wing (half barrel) principle to drag air through the wing to gain lift? If so, they have outmoded conventional aircraft and developed a forerunner of a new breed of military aircraft which will be used for many purposes, including search and attack, reconnaissance, aerial photography and direct combat operations.