Question: Facts: - known for: custer channel wing - death date: 25 december 1985 - children: harold r. custer - birth date: 6 june 1899 - name: william ray custer - parents: clem t. custer , florence m. byrd - death place: hagerstown , maryland - birth place: warfordsburg , pennsylvania Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of willard ray custer .
Answer:
willard ray custer -lrb- born june 6 , 1899 in warfordsburg , pennsylvania , died december 25 , 1985 in hagerstown , maryland -rrb- was an american engineer and aircraft visionary , inventor of the channel wing concept .he was a great grandnephew of george armstrong custer .custer left school at age 13 , working as a blacksmith , and later an engineer and mechanic .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 .he started investigating the phenomenon , and by 1928 he had developed the first model of a new air plane wing that he subsequently , in 1929 , filed a patent for .this channel wing managed much lift even at very low airspeeds , and allowed start and landing on very short airfields .in 1939 custer founded the '' national aircraft corporation '' , and on november 12 , 1942 started development of the ccw-1 -lrb- custerchannelwing 1 -rrb- experimental aircraft .with the ccw-2 that followed , he could achieve almost vertical starts , and flight almost like a helicopter .the military started a number of trials , that was subsequently cancelled despite some interesting achievements .later , custer founded the '' custer channelwing corporation '' , and in 1954 built more aircraft .the last one , the ccw-5 , almost reach series production .the principle of the channel wing was not well understood by many , especially at the time .custer was a splendid 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 .today , only two ccw aircraft survive .the ccw-1 is displayed at the smithsonian ' s national air & space museum , suitland , maryland , while the ccw-5 is at the mid-atlantic air museum , pennsylvania .the big break-through for the channel wing never happened , although attempts to revive it is seen from...