William Horton : Wingless Plane -- articles, videos &

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William Horton

Wingless Plane

https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&II=0&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=19560214&CC=US&NR=2734701A&KC=A US2734701 --* Airplane with Retractable Variable Incidence Wings***

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dn651TXpG8 The Horton Wingless - Part 1 - 1997 Mystery Wirehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYBDPBfzbw The Horton Wingless - Part 2 - 1997

https://www.mysterywire.com/mysteries/the-horton-wingless-the-plane-that-never-existed/ The Horton Wingless – The plane that never existed by: George Knapp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zNSUcUloNE Horton Wingless: Betrayal, Scandal, and the Plane That Couldn’t Survive  //  Retro Transport

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WobX6ZMDzSE U.S.A. - Wingless Plane Makes Debut (1954) British Pathé

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbAZTCW5Q9M 1952 Horton Wingless Aircraft Demonstrated - 250167-03 // Footage Farm Ltd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgmHKfawTNg Horton wingless story // tripleplaykid

https://www.zoggavia.com/horton-wingless-plane Wings of Vision -- The Story of the Horton Wingless Aircraft

In 1952, engineer and aviation dreamer William E. Horton, hailing from Huntington Beach, California, unveiled a radical new design: the so-called “wingless” aircraft. Horton’s concept was not truly wingless—but rather a lifting-body type design where the entire fuselage acted as an airfoil, aided by vertical fin-like surfaces ("tip plates") to counter wingtip vortices. Every part of the craft was intended to contribute to lift — a daring break from conventional forms.

Three-view

drawing of the Horton Wingless HW-X-26-52 (N39C), 1952.

Ambition Meets Influence

Lacking the capital to develop his prototype alone, Horton entered into partnership with billionaire Howard Hughes and industrialist Harlow Curtice (General Motors).

The design shows William Horton’s radical lifting-body concept: a broad fuselage generating lift, twin piston engines with tractor propellers, and vertical tip fins replacing conventional wings.

Horton Wingless – Prototype under Construction, 1952–1954

In the early 1950s, visionary inventor William Horton of Huntington Beach, California, set out to challenge conventional aerodynamics. Using the fuselage of a Cessna T-50 Bobcat as a starting point, he created the Horton Wingless HW-X-26-52 (registered N39C), an experimental lifting-body aircraft where the entire structure acted as an airfoil...

[ prototype\ \ Start of Takeoff Roll – Horton Wingless Prototype, January\ 1954\ \ William Horton’s radical Wingless HW-X-26-52 (N39C) begins its\ short test run at Orange County Airport. Captured in January\ 1954 by Robert Geivet, this rare photograph shows the futuristic\ lifting-body design accelerating down the runway — a fleeting\ moment when Horton’s dream briefly took flight. Zoggavia\ Collection via the Old Courthouse Museum.\ \ N39C-TEST-FLIGHT-OF-THE-HORTON-X-26-52-WINGLESS-PLANE-195401-ROBERT-GEIVET-OC-PUBLIC-LIBRARIES_1\ \ [ Airborne – Horton Wingless Prototype, January 1954 ]\ \ * * \ \ https://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal9/8701-8800/gal8770-Horten-Stern/00.shtm Scratch-built 1/72 Horton Wingless Prototype-1950 by Gabriel Stern\ \ \ \ * * \ \ * * *\ \