DAN SHUMAKER COLLECTION
No. 6191. McClary A Motor Glider (N2486)
Photograph from Wide World Photos, taken at Long Beach, California, USA, April 4, 1929

McClary A Motor Glider

Original photo caption:

The Bat Wing Monoplane.

Long Beach, Calif. Bat Wing Monoplane with the propeller turning through the wing structure is devised by Earl E. McClary, who is making ready to send his ship in the air for the first time at Long Beach, Calif. The weird craft is composed largely of one enormous pear-shaped wing, from which hangs the motor, cabin and landing gear. Almost in the center of the ship, the propeller cuts through the spreading surface in the most radical departure in aeronautics yet designed. The odd construction of the plane permits of a lifting surface estimated by its designer as five and one half pounds to the square foot, almost twice that of an ordinary plane.

Photo shows a front view of the odd plane showing how the propeller turns in a slot in the lone wing with the cabin, motor and landing gear suspended below it.



Created February 28, 2007