Fat Buffalo...look ma...no wheels...

[Michel Lemieux]

Fat Buffalo...look ma...no wheels...

Long time no post....

On the original side.

XC8A ACLS

No. 7012. de Havilland Canada DHC-5A XC-8A Buffalo (115451 c/n 5) Canadian Armed Forces

One C-8A aircraft converted into an air-cushion landing system research aircraft.

Reminds me of the Trifibian Grumman Albaytos, good for air...land, water & snow....

From: http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Visschedijk/7012.htm

The ACLS concept was invented by T. Desmond Earl and Wilfred J. Eggington of Bell Aerospace at Buffalo, New York, USA, and a company-funded effort was initiated on December 1, 1963, soon joined by the Flight Dynamics Laboratory. The ACLS was first demonstrated on the Lake LA-4 Buccaneer amphibian, flown from Niagara Falls International Airport, New York, in 1967. The LA-4 performed take-offs and landings on water, ice, snow, grass and conventional runways.

In 1970 the USAF and the Canadian Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce jointly issued a contract for Bell Aerospace to design, install and flight test an ACLS on the CC-115, redesignated XC-8A, and 115451 was delivered for conversion to Bell Aerospace on November 15, 1971. The first flight in the ACLS configuration was made from Buffalo in early April, 1975, the first landing was made on April 11. Flight testing was done by the 4950th Test Wing, Aeronautical System Division, USAF, at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

The aircraft returned to the CAF on April 30, 1979 and was converted back to a CC-115 and used for SAR operations and is currently operational with 442
(T & R) Squadron, CFB Comox, British Columbia.

[Tillerman]

That looks odd!

The British experimented with another kind of 'rubber landing': the rubber runway on an aircraft carrier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Lu6LEQ0zo

Obviously both systems never made it.

Tillerman.