Most of what this dossier holds on William E. Horton's aircraft is photographs, a patent and a regulator's findings (see Horton Wingless Plane: The HW-X-26-52, N39C and the Photographic Record, Horton Wingless Plane: The Lifting-Body Claim, the N39C Photographs and US2734701 and The SEC's 1957 Stop Order Against Horton Aircraft: Wings That Were Never Retracted, Short Test Flights and a Disputed Patent Assignment). The April 2011 issue (No. 298) of the T.W.I.T.T. Newsletter, published by a non-profit flying-wing society in El Cajon, California, adds a different kind of record: a list of where the machine appeared in print between 1950 and 2000. The list is taken from the Tailless Aircraft Bibliography compiled by Serge Krauss and is headed as dated 2000. It comes with a short letter from Krauss giving his own view of the design.
It is a finding aid, not a set of findings. It tells a reader which magazines to look for; it does not reproduce what they said.
Why the list was printed
The editor, Andy Kecskes, explains that a member working on a design of his own had asked for information on the Horton Wingless, and that he printed Krauss's reply of March 29, 2011. Krauss writes that most of his Horton items are in his own files and attaches the relevant entries. His letter spells the name "Horten"; the bibliography itself uses "Horton" and "Horton, W.E." The same issue reprints a 1947 paper by A. R. Weyl that mentions the Horten brothers and their swept-back gliders, a passage that has nothing to say about W. E. Horton's aircraft.
What the citations cover
The bibliography gives eighteen numbered entries. Most entries carry a shorthand code such as "unex.", "ex.c.", "ex.o." or "ex.nc."; the newsletter does not spell these out, beyond Krauss's remark that items marked "ex.o." or "ex.c." are in his files.
Popular and aviation magazines, 1951 to 1954:
- Science and Mechanics, 2/51: a cover painting and pp. 67-9, with a cutaway by Douglas Rolfe and drawings.
- Air Trails, 6/51, p. 25: a photograph of the first prototype, a drawing and two three-views of proposed variants.
- Popular Mechanics, 12/52: an article including photographs of the Cessna T-50 based prototype.
- Air Trails, 1/53, p. 22, and Popular Science, 2/53: a photograph each.
- Air Trails, 8/53, p. 68: a free-flight model by Ron St. Jeans, listed because it "looks like" the Horton; photograph and caption only.
- Flying, 10/54: the cover and p. 45, described as four paragraphs, a painting and a photograph.
Horton's own documents:
- A promotional brochure for the Horton V-16 "Wingless", dated about 1951.
- U.S. Patent No. 2,734,701, "Airplane with Retractable Variable-Incidence Wings", dated 2/14/56 and filed 5/13/52. Krauss summarises it as a roadable aircraft with a thick, low-aspect-ratio lifting fuselage, end plates, and small retractable wings of variable incidence and sweep, and counts five figures and one claim. Horton Wingless Plane: The Lifting-Body Claim, the N39C Photographs and US2734701 enumerates six figures from the specification.
Later retrospectives:
- A French item, "Horton HW-X-26-52 'Wingless' – Bimoteur Expérimental (USA)", in Aviation Magazine, p. 20, with a three-view, photograph and specifications. The date is given only as "ca. 1952-60's", though the entry notes that the page is marked "No.57298 du 1-3-57", which points to 1957. The entry's file code carries the name Vigneron, without explanation.
- Air Classics: a piece by Michael O'Leary in 3/67 (four paragraphs, two photographs); the 1985 special report "Fabulous Flying Flops", pp. 58-59; and 3/87, pp. 66-67. A further Air Classics entry (V.23, No.3, p. 66) has its date given with a question mark as 1986 and is queried by the compiler as possibly the same as the 3/67 piece.
- Single photographs in the AAHS Journal, Summer 1999, p. 155, and in Wings, 2/2000, p. 22, the latter with photographs credited to Peter Bowers.
One entry is filed under "Unknown Merit": Flight, 10/5/50, p. 377, noted as cited in Horton's patent and as possibly relating to Horton, low-aspect-ratio or roadable aircraft.
The last entry is a website by David Dodge, recorded in October 2000. Its Horton pages are listed as "The Horton Story" (two three-views, eleven photographs or drawings), "The Test of the First Horton" (seven photographs labelled FAA/Backstrom) and the Rolfe cutaway from Science and Mechanics. Krauss praises Dodge's research but reports that in 2011 he could no longer find the site.
Two prototypes, not one
The bibliography's appendix entry for "HORTON, W.E." describes two aircraft:
- A first prototype "Wingless": a rectangular-planform, low-aspect-ratio lifting body with chord-length flow fences, twin vertical fins and suspended elevons. Its flight date is given with a question mark as 1951.
- A second prototype, the HW-X-26-52 "Wingless": Cessna T-50-based, with twin tractor engines, a low-aspect-ratio near-rectangular wing with swept leading edge, fences, and protruding retractable wing tips. Its flight date is given as "1952 or '54".
A "V-16" production proposal of about 1951 is listed alongside them.
This matters for the rest of the dossier. Horton Wingless Plane: The HW-X-26-52, N39C and the Photographic Record treats the T-50-based N39C as the aircraft; the appendix entry, and the Air Trails photograph of June 1951, point to an earlier machine. The entry itself is uncertain about when, or whether, that first prototype flew.
Krauss's assessment
Krauss's letter is the opinion of a bibliographer, not a test report, and he offers no figures. He contrasts rectangular low-aspect-ratio designs with semi-elliptical ones such as the Arup, Hoffman and Zimmerman types, and says the rectangular ones seem to have had a lot of induced drag even with tip plates. Of this aircraft he writes: "I don't think the Horton climbed at all well, without the extended wings."
That judgement runs the same way as the Securities and Exchange Commission's 1957 finding that no flight had been made with the wings retracted, but it is not independent confirmation of it; Krauss does not say what he bases it on. For the general question of what a "wingless" layout involves, see Wingless Aircraft Configuration.
What this record does and does not establish
The list shows that the Horton Wingless received magazine coverage from early 1951, before the 13 May 1952 patent filing, and that one later retrospective is titled "Fabulous Flying Flops". It does not give the content of any article, any performance figure, or the source of the dates in the appendix entry. Several entries are flagged by the compiler himself as doubtful or of unknown merit. The 1951 and 1952 articles would have to be read directly before anything they say about lift, speed or flight tests could be weighed against the claims set out in Horton Wingless Plane: The Image Dossier and the Absence of Flight Data.
References
- T.W.I.T.T. Newsletter No. 298, April 2011: Serge Krauss's letter of March 29, 2011, p. 3, and "Horton 'Wingless' Citations from Tailless Aircraft Bibliography – S. Krauss (2000)", p. 11: https://rcsoaringdigest.com/TWITT/Apr11Ltr.pdf
Source notes & attribution
- https://rcsoaringdigest.com/TWITT/Apr11Ltr.pdf