Willard Ray Custer (June 6, 1899, Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania – December 25, 1985, Hagerstown, Maryland) was an American engineer and aircraft visionary, inventor of the channel wing concept.
The inspiration to the channel wing concept came in 1925 when Custer had observed how the roof of a barn was lifted during a very strong gust of wind.
[2] This channel wing managed much lift even at very low airspeeds and allowed start and landing on very short airfields.
Custer was an experimenter and visionary, with many patents filed, but he did not have a strong theoretical and scientific background.
The Custer Channelwing Corporation had to cease its activities, and the channel wing principle was mostly forgotten.