Inventor Willard Custer, Cedar Lawn, points to the channel wing design he says makes possible safe 15-miles-per-hour takeoffs and landings and doubles plane's lifting capacity. Test version (shown above in inset) has flown more than 100 hours.

Propellors (shown on plane in top photo above) pull air through channel at hurricane speed, creating lift to make plane airborne at 15 m.p.h. Change pitch of propellor or engine speed permits flight at any desired speed. In photo on bottom is shown view of test model that has flown during trials at Beltsville, Md. Despite its unusual appearance, the plane's controls are conventional and easy to fly, Custer says. The War department lifted in February the secrecy imposed on tests of the plane.