The Slingsby CAMCO V-Liner was a proposed advertising aircraft of unusual design of the 1960s. It was intended to display advertising using electric lights to be viewed at a long distance, and as such consisted of a long triangular frame carried between two sets of wings and fuselages. The prototype V-Liner was destroyed in a factory fire before completion and the type was abandoned.

Design and development

In the late 1960s, the American company Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company Inc. (CAMCO) was interested in means of

aerial advertising Aerial advertising is a form of advertising that incorporates the use of flogos, manned aircraft, or drones to create, transport, or display, advertising media. The media can be ''static'', such as a banner, logo, lighted sign or sponsorship bran ...

. A requirement was identified for an 18-letter message to be displayed by means of electric lights, which would be easily readable at a range of 2–3 miles (3–5 km). The use of

blimp A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium, rather than hydr ...

s (non-rigid

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

s) was not considered economical, while a fixed wing aircraft carrying such a message would be much longer than any ever built.''Flight International'' 12 September 1968, p. 420. CAMCO decided that a long rigid triangular framework of aluminium tubing would be used to carry the display lighting, and that it would be carried between separate sets of wings and fuselages at the front and rear of the framework. The aircraft's crew would consist of two; one in each of the fuselages, with the aircraft normally flown from the forward fuselage and the display electronics controlled from the rear. Each fuselage would have a set of

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

wings, which were all-moving so that they could be used as control surfaces, while the aircraft was to be powered by two engines carried on pylons above the front fuselage and its wings. Production aircraft were planned to be

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

, although the prototype would not be.''Flight International'' 19 September 1968, p. 447. CAMCO chose Slingsby Aircraft of

Kirbymoorside Kirkbymoorside () is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district in North Yorkshire, England. It is north of York, It is also midway between Pickering and Helmsley, on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. It had a populat ...

, England to build the new aircraft, called the V-Liner, in 1968. A prototype was expected to fly in late 1969, while it was hoped to build 42 in four years, with several hundred built over a longer period. V-Liners would be available only for lease from CAMCO, not for sale. Variants would be the "CV2 Video Liner", "CV3 Vector" and "CV4 Victory Liner". Work began on construction of the first prototype, but the Slingsby factory was wrecked by a fire on 18 November 1968, and the partly built prototype was badly damaged.Jackson 1974, pp. 386–387. The fire forced Slingsby into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

, and although the company was rescued by

Vickers Limited Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entir ...

and resumed glider production, work on the V-Liner was abandoned.''Flight International'' 13 November 1969, p. 735.

Specifications

Notes

References

* * * * * *-,"The Flying Billboard", ''

The Aviation Historian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', No. 1, 2012, pp.24-25.

External links

Picture of model with model Boeing 707 for scaleBritish Pathe film of the V-liner model displayed at the 1968 Farnborough Air Display

{{Slingsby aircraft CAMCO V-Liner Tandem-wing aircraft