The Burnelli RB-1 was a
US twin engine
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
airliner prototype from 1920, incorporating a
lifting body fuselage.
Design and development
The Burnelli RB-1, often known as the Remington-Burnelli Airliner, was an American passenger
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
from 1920, designed by
Vincent Burnelli.
[Taylor 1989, p.225] It incorporated Burnelli's lifting-body design. Following several more conventional designs during the WWI years, Burnelli came up with the idea of a lifting body: an airfoil
An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine.
...
-shaped fuselage that could be used to generate up to 50% of the lift, improving performance, due to reduced wing area and fuel consumption.
The RB-1's body contributed about 27% of the total lifting area and was designed to support about 15% of its weight. The fuselage was built around plywood
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...
frames and was clad in corrugated duralumin
Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''.
Its use as a tra ...
. The two pilots were situated in a pair of open cockpits, each with a mechanic seated by his side. Its pair of Liberty engines were immediately in front of these cockpits, largely buried in the leading edge of the body but accessible from the cockpits. The body width of 14 ft (4.27 m) placed the engines only 10 ft 4 in (3.15 m) apart, with about 1 in (25 mm) clearance between propeller tips. The cabin housed up to 30 passengers. At the fixed "trailing edge" of the fuselage small twin fins mounted above its sides carried balanced rudder
Balanced rudders are used by both ships and aircraft. Both may indicate a portion of the rudder surface ahead of the hinge, placed to lower the control loads needed to turn the rudder. For aircraft the method can also be applied to elevators and ...
s and short, mid-fuselage mounted tailplanes carried balanced elevators.[
It was a single bay equal span biplane, with simple parallel interplane struts and without stagger. The wings were wooden structures, fabric covered. The ailerons carried on both upper and lower wings had prominent tip balances.][
The RB-1 flew for the first time on 21 June 1921 from ]Curtiss Field Curtiss Airport may refer to:
* LaGuardia Airport, known as Glenn H. Curtiss Airport from 1930 to 1939
* Roosevelt Field (airport), a former airport in Garden City, New York, that was once named Curtiss Field
* Columbia Field, a former airport in V ...
, Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, piloted by Bert Acosta[ and ]William P. Sullivan
William P. Sullivan (June 3, 1870 in Wisconsin – April 1925 in Billings, Missouri) was an attorney and a member of the Missouri House of Representatives and the Missouri Senate.
Career
Sullivan was a member of the House of Representatives fr ...
. Its performance was considered acceptable. However, the first model produced was badly damaged while on the ground during a storm.
Burnelli RB-2
The Burnelli RB-2 was a 1920s American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
twin-engined biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
freighter or airliner, designed by Vincent Burnelli with a lifting body fuselage. At the time it was the world's largest commercial freighter. It was the first aircraft to carry a motor car inside its fuselage.
Design and development
The RB-2 was based on the earlier RB-1 airliner, it had improved control surfaces and was powered by two 650 hp Galloway Atlantic piston engines.Hudson Motor Car Company
The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other branded automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., from 1909 until 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corporation (AMC). The Hudson name was continued through ...
as a flying showroom for the Essex automobile.
Specifications
Notes
References
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{{Burnelli aircraft
1920s United States civil aircraft
Lifting bodies
RB-1
Biplanes
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1921