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The Cornelius Mallard was a single-engined light aircraft of very unusual configuration, tailless and with a swept forward wing of variable incidence. It flew between 1943-4.

Mallard
Role	two-seat light aircraft
National origin	U.S.A
Manufacturer	Cornelius Aircraft Co.
Designer	George Cornelius
First flight	18 August 1943
Number built	1

Design and development

The Mallard was the third aircraft type produced by Cornelius Aircraft.[1] The first two, the FreWing and the LW-1 were conventional in layout but unusual in using independently variable incidence wings for pitch and roll control. The wings of the Mallard could also be adjusted in the air,[1][2] but they were of low aspect ratio with marked forward sweep. The trailing edge carried conventional ailerons near the tips and elevators close to the fuselage. The Mallard was also a tailless aircraft, in the sense of lacking a horizontal tailplane. The rest of the aircraft was conventional, with single fin and rudder and a side-by-side cockpit for two behind a flat four engine. The undercarriage was fixed and of the tailwheel type. Like other Cornelius designs, the sole Mallard was built by the Spartan Aircraft Company.[1]

The Mallard first flew on 18 August 1943, flown by Arthur Reitherman,[2] though some sources[3] suggest that most of the subsequent 18 flights were in the hands of the Romanian aerobatic pilot Alexander Papana. The first public flight was on 7 September 1943.[2] It was reported to have been 700 lb (320 kg) overweight[1] and there were plans to install a more powerful engine. The designer claimed that the Mallard was stall and spin proof, though the later loss of the much larger but similarly configured Cornelius XFG-1 in an irrecoverable spin has cast doubt on this.[4]

Specifications

Data from [2]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Wingspan: 38 ft 0 in (11.58 m)
• Gross weight: 2,470 lb (1,840 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Engine , 130 hp (97 kW)

Performance

• Cruise speed: 125 mph (200 km/h, 109 kn)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cornelius Mallard.

Notes

Bibliography

• "Cornelius' experiments". Flight (24 January 1990): 47.
• "Underpowered and overweight". Flight (13 December 1989): 72.
• "Out for a duck". Flight (24 September 2002): 47.
• "Straight & Level". Flight (15 November 1989): 63.
• Miles, George. "The Tandem Monoplane". Flight (27 April 1944): 444–7.

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