Vincent Burnelli....a forgotten aviation master !?

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15 years 2 months

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I wonder if Vincent Burnelli was right about his safety aeroplane concept ?

About 110 000 people has died in current airliners.

UB-14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbA_fyCeIh4

Safety issue;

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdIqm9FOSV0

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eosTXSDPAvI

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqcZwQ17fxk

What is your standpoint to this ?

Original post

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19 years 1 month

Posts: 6,043

Burnelli CBY-3

We did a NE USA Road Trip in may/june 2018 during which we covered somewhere between 2,500/3,000 miles doing a mix of (mostly) Aviation and Railroad related visits (with a lovely Lake Boat trip thrown in),we popped into the New England Air Museum at Windsor Locks,Connecticut mainly to see their beautiful Sikorski VS - 44A 'Excambian'.
But they also have an amazing survivor :- A Burnelli CBY- 3 Loadmaster which is undergoing a very high quality restoration - this link shows some restoration details https://www.neam.org/restoration-cby3.php.
We spent a whole day looking around the main museum during which a kind Docent (Volunteer) took us on a detailed tour of the B29 (Jack's Hack) and its systems,the restoration shop was not open that day and we were on a very tight schedule as we had a long drive to get within spitting distance of the Kinzua Bridge 'Sky walk' (approx 450 miles of country roads) the next morning.However Carl the Docent volunteered to come into work early the next day to show us round the restoration shop and storage hangar,we decided not to miss this opportunity :) - these 2 buildings are tight for space so getting decent pics was quite tricky - but here are a few.

In the restoration shop....


Interior shot - looking forward to the Flight Deck

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19 years 1 month

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One of the Engines in the restoration shop...

https://i.imgur.com/WReub3U.jpg

Wing Panels in the Storage Hangar

https://i.imgur.com/Z6tkUbT.jpg

Tail Group in Storage Hangar

https://i.imgur.com/GdZig45.jpg

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15 years 2 months

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Awesome data ! Great photos.

Thank you.

Just think about putting Scaled Composites to revitalize the concept ?!

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15 years 2 months

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Fairly similar Dave - it is just as ugly :D

Yes..they are hidiously ugly...but could they be developed to something new and exciting ?

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19 years 5 months

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"...could they be developed to something new and exciting ?"

Along the same lines...sort of...
The Boeing blended wing concept.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body

It's so radical it would likely have to have a full scale proof of concept before (rightfully) conservative airlines would order them.
Frankly, I'd like to see the USAF order some as advanced tankers to supplement the KC-46, that would certainly demonstrate the concept.

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,619

Along the same lines...sort of...
The Boeing blended wing concept.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body

It's so radical it would likely have to have a full scale proof of concept before (rightfully) conservative airlines would order them.
Frankly, I'd like to see the USAF order some as advanced tankers to supplement the KC-46, that would certainly demonstrate the concept.

You have be to real careful now.

There is a flying wing, lifting body, blended wing...and a lifting fuselage...latter is the Burnelli /DeMonge concept from 1922.

Couple of American homebuilt designs of note which have met with some success - the Sorrell Hiperbipe employs an airfoil shaped fuselage and the Dyke Delta is a blended wing delta.

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19 years 5 months

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You have be to real careful now.

There is a flying wing, lifting body, blended wing...and a lifting fuselage...latter is the Burnelli /DeMonge concept from 1922.

That's why I said "sort of".
In short we have the choice of all wing or all fuselage...or something in the middle.
They all share the same desire...less drag.

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15 years 2 months

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Here is my try on the subject...lifting fuselage.

There is a small free flying model of it.