Burnelli CBY-3

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Wooden CBY-3 wind-tunnel test model
Wooden CBY-3 wind-tunnel test model

The Burnelli CBY-3 Loadmaster was an unconventional transport aircraft designed by United States engineer Vincent Burnelli and constructed in Canada in 1944 at the Canada Car and Foundry.


Contents

[edit] Development

The CBY-3 "lifting fuselage" was an evolution of the earlier Burnelli UB-14. Burnelli worked as a designer at Canada Car and Foundry Co. in Montreal and the CBY-3 was built for bush operations in northern Canada. The sole prototype was extensively tested but failed to gain a production contract.

Burnelli had a lifelong career devoted to exploiting the advantages of a lifting body airfoil concept that characterized many of his earlier aircraft designs. His last design, the CBY-3 was manufactured by CanCar in Montreal, but reverted back to Burnelli, when the CBY-3 was unable to gain a production contract. The name of the aircraft, CBY-3, was derived from the name of the three partners involved in its creation: CanCar, Burnelli and Lowell Yerex and “3” from the number of partners involved. Lowell Yerex was a New Zealander who had formed TACA – Transportes Aéreos Centroamericanos (Central American Air Transport) in Honduras in 1931, and joined the project when Burnelli convinced him that the CBY-3 could be used as both a cargo and passenger aircraft.


[edit] Operational history

Originally registered "CF-BEL-X" while still in the experimental stage, this one-off, twin-boom, aerofoil-section fuselage, high-lift airliner garnered significant interest from the industry. "CF-BEL-X" underwent rigorous testing and proving flights designed to show off its potential. Despite a trouble-free test program and glowing accolades from the press and industry observers, no production orders resulted and the prototype was later sold in the US as "N17N."

Moving to Southampton, N.Y., Burnelli remained tireless in his determination to promote his airfoil-shaped fuselage transport planes. In 1955, he adapted the CBY-3 to carry an expedition of 20 passengers and 41 sled dogs, along with their equipment, to the North Pole, but the enterprise was canceled.

The Loadmaster continued to fly regularly as a commercial airliner both in northern Canada and South America; acquired with design rights by Airlifts Inc. in Miami, Florida, it went to Venezuela, and returned to Burnelli Avionics for refitting with Wright R-2600 engines, finally ended its flying days at Baltimore's airport in Maryland.


[edit] Disposition

In 1964 the CBY-3 air transport was retired to the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, where it sits today, displayed outside in a poor condition, northwest of the B-29 building.

[edit] Specifications (CBY-3)

General characteristics

  • Crew: two, pilot & co-pilot
  • Capacity: 24 passengers
  • Length: 53 feet, 11 inches (16.4 m)
  • Wingspan: 85 feet, 5.5 inches (26 m)
  • Height: 20 feet, 8 inches (6.3 m)
  • Wing area: 1,106.9 sq ft (102.83 sq m)
  • Empty weight: 16,900 lbs (7,675 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 27,000 lbs (12,272 kg)
  • Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Twin-Wasp R-1830 radial engines, 1,200 hp (895 kW) each

Performance

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

  • Townend, David R. Clipped Wings – The History of Aborted Aircraft Projects. Markham, Ontario: AeroFile Publications, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9732020-4-5.

[edit] External links

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