High-Flying Hopes

The oddball craft that fluttered over Otay Mesa near San Diego last week looked like a refugee from a museum of aviation antiques. But the ungainly contraption was more modern than that. Its triangular nylon wing, transparent and flexible as a shower curtain (see cut), was the Ryan Aeronautical Co.'s latest attempt to solve some of the problems of space-age flight.

The Ryan Flex Wing has no conventional control surfaces. Its pilot and 100-h.p. engine hang well below the kitelike wing, and control is accomplished by tilting the wing with respect to the heavy, low-hanging engine. If the leading point of the wing is lowered, the Flex Wing tends to descend. When the wing is tilted to the side, the Flex Wing banks and turns.

The prototype tested last week flew only a short distance--never higher than 500 ft., never faster than 60 m.p.h. But Ryan has swift, high-flying hopes for its slow, primitive-looking contraption. The wing is extremely light; it can be folded into a small package and spread out swiftly. This makes it attractive for use as a steerable parachute or a glider. With an engine attached, the handy Flex Wing may serve for military cargo-carrying, wire-laying and other quick-transport jobs. If its nylon fabric is replaced with cloth woven of heat-resistant metal wires, the Flex Wing may be able to ease space vehicles down through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. One candidate for this treatment, say Ryan engineers, might be the elaborate eight-engine booster of the Saturn rocket, which will crash to costly destruction a short time after launch unless it is landed gently.

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