William Horton
Wingless Plane
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dn651TXpG8
The Horton Wingless - Part 1 - 1997
Mystery Wire
https://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.
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
