The Nash Airflyte automobile design inspired the front air intake and covered front wheels.

NASA developed some vectored jet experimental aircraft and flight-tested them.


The inventor was inspired about vectored slipstream lift while doing full-power engine checks
on 3,000 h.p. attack airplanes and noticing how the propwash blew onto the wings and
created enough lift to make the airplane rise up on the wheel struts.
The vectored fan-stream design was later seen to be too risky due to the
potential for engine failure at low altitude, such as landing or take-off, and
subsequent catastrophic loss of lift with little potential for recovery. Also, the
aircraft landing gear mounting was found to be unsuitable due to weakness and
the design had inadequate brakes for highway use.

Originally, the engine purchased was a Franklin six-cylinder O-300 engine.
It was similar to that used in the Tucker "Torpedo"; it was the key to that
car's performance. The manufacturer no longer supports that engine;
however,their O-335 may be used. A concern is that the road mode operation
calls for extended periods of idling that may foul the spark plugs.
Construction on a prototype RASer was begun, but abandoned due to extensive relocations and time constraints.

StrongMobile
The RASer was then modified in 1963 with conventional swing wings as
an undergraduate Aeronautical Engineering Airplane Preliminary Design
project. The inventor's Instructor was the late Edgar Lesher, who held
world speed records for lightplanes; he advised the class to "distort the
specifications". The specification chosen to be distorted came from my
background in Detroit, that is, to distort by increasing the production
numbers by making the airplane roadable. The figure below shows the
preliminary design sketch for the project. The design was to have had a
road drive via a power take-off from the aircraft engine with a Dodge
Flexidyne transmission and lightweight, light duty differential gear by V-Plex.

At full power for take-off, the jet exhaust was calculated to be about 250 m.p.h.,
giving a boost to the wingroot lift, thus retaining the RASer's vectored lift notion.

A small model of the StrongMobile was built and displayed at the
Experimental Aircraft Association's National Convention in 1965.

The StrongMobile design was tested in the CalTech Guggenheim wind tunnel
as shown above. The tests showed that the aft fuselage-body and tailplane
interfered with each other and created a nozzle effect; this was cured by
re-designing the aft fuselage to provide more up-sweep towards the tail;
this also makes for a more stable reflexed fuselage airfoil.
The main result was that the lifting body design was valid, that is, the body did provide lift.
Improvements to the 1/12th scale wind tunnel model were mainly removing the
wheels and smoothing over the wheel wells, similar to the retractable concept.
The Cal Tech technicians also removed the wheels and filled in the wheel wells
with clay and tested again; with the streamlining, the lift/drag ratio was 8:1,
which is quite acceptable by airplane standards.
The model had a simulation of an engine cooling exhaust augmenter nozzle;
this cowling design showed separation and was changed.
Other improvements increase the L/D, such as eliminating the engine cooling
exhaust duct drag, increasing wingspan, and re-contouring the turtleback to
reduce interference with the tailplane. Testing the current design is required.
The design was patented with US Patent 3,612,440, 12 Oct 1971.

The design was then put on the back burner, so to speak, as a result of
the vanishing lightplane market that was influenced by liability litigation
and the fuel crunch. The inventor continued to refine the design with
several design improvements. The rear end was changed to include a
convertable bumper fairing that provided a degree of crashworthiness.
The large single dorsal fin was replaced with dual fins, a "pi"-tail.
The biggest change was to enlarge the wing surface area to accommodate
the added weight of changing the design to use automotive suspension
and drive train. The solution was to add folding wingtips and stow them.
The wing flip-tips further reduce the induced drag and improve the design.
The design was re-named "Magic Dragon".

After 2001, the inventor built two more models of the Magic Dragon design.

A 1/12^th scale tether model showed that the stability and center of mass were OK.

A ½ scale model was built and displayed at the Dayton Air Show.
It had a fixed tailplane, but was otherwise representative of the Magic Dragon design.

After a barn was built to shelter construction, the full-scale mock-up was built.

Its design incorporated the folding tailplane concept for better stability.
A great deal of time was spent on studying an electric hybrid version; however,
inputs from folks attending forums and exhibits overwhelmingly favored using
a conventional mechanical road drive, so the design was changed accordingly.
Also, there were objections to using the fan while driving, so a clutch was
conceived for disconnecting the fan.

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