The Aircraft
With those round dips in the wings, it was obvious that Custer, one of aviation’s great ‘what if’ stories, had to be involved. The innovative wing design was his idea, and he alone had pursued it doggedly since the 1940s. He died in 1985, his decades of labor unrewarded.
Willard Custer experienced severe disappointments and made his share of mistakes in thirty years. Consequently, he did not achieve all that he set out to do. But he did achieve something, and it was significant. A master mechanic, he took his homegrown idea and turned it into four full-size aircraft that implemented a radically different approach to flight. Those aircraft were real, and they proved his theories. And in the end, Willard was proud and honored to be known as the man who had created them. They remain his trophies.
Following is a review of each of those aircraft and, in blue, where it is today.