After studying mechanics, Alfred Lanser (1886-1960), like a lot of young men of the time was attracted by aviation. In 1909, he found an adequate engine and began to build a plane around it, a big tractor biplane. He tested it at the Kiewit airfield north of Hasselt, Belgium, but didn’t manage to make it fly. In 1910 Lanser bought a Farman and was granted Belgian license number 16. After frequent appearances at aviation meetings in 1910-1912 he started building planes of his own design, but he also invented self-sealing tanks for airplanes, before a long career in industry and business in several countries.
The 1932 LVF (XL-5) open-cockpit mid-wing monoplane NX12865 c/n XL-5 was stable enough not to slip or dive in a stall. In landing it had a tendency to favour a steep descent with control maintained at minimum forward speed.
The 1931 XL-4 single-place cabin, high wing monoplane N11512 c/n X-141 was the XL-3 modified with stabilizing wingtip “winglets”. The wing was mounted as a parasol on top of a central pillar which also housed the pilot.
The 1930 XL-2 NX816Y c/n XL-2 had the vacuum cell mounted as a separate box on top of the fuselage. The full-cantilever mid-wing had a span of at least 25′, reportedly a modified Durand 13 airfoil. The tail consiste of twin fins and rudders. The pilot was in an enclosed cabin under the wing.
The 1928 XL-1 N3505 c/n 1 was a single-place, open cockpit low-wing monoplane powered by an Anzani engine. The apprimately 8’10” span wings were spaced away from the fuselage to allow the air to flow against the vacuum cell.
The 1949 443 Paraplane was apparently a larger, possibly high-wing, reconstruction of the Lanier Paraplane with a 180hp Lycoming O-320, again registered N9060H. The project was abandoned circa 1955 after failing to attract a market.
The 1949 120 Paraplane I N9060H test-bed was used by Office of Naval Research in STOL evaluation. First flown by Leo Riley, the Paraplane featured an inverted “Vacucell” gull-wing with an air scoop below and vacuum-slots on top—operated by a hand-crank in the cockpit—enabled slow flight at 19mph, take-off in 100′, a 30° climb angle and 40° descent angle, and was spin- and stall-proof.
A modified Paraplane II showed up in 1949 with a 22’6″ wing and was capable of nearly hovering.
The 1958 110 Paraplane Commuter PL-8 N4157A was built for controllable slow-flight at 20-25 mph and take-off and land in 60 ft. The Paraplane Commuter 110 or 110 Paraplane Commuter PL-8 was one of the last designs stemming from Edward H. Lanier’s 1930s patents, and aircraft incorporating apertures in the upper surfaces, which claimed to give benefits in safety, lift and STOL ability.
In the early 1930s Edward H. Lanier published six US patents concerned with increased aircraft lift and stability, minimising the stall, sideslip and spin. This was to be achieved through vacuum chamber (“Vacua-cells”), initially in the upper fuselage but later in the upper wing, where the reduced pressure established by airflow over a curved surface would act on the lower surface inside the cell, providing lift. The second patent suggests that the cell should contain angled spanwise slats to prevent air entering them at low speeds and that these should be adjustable so that the cells could be closed when required. The earlier patents stress stability improvements; claims of enhanced lift begin with the fourth patent. Five Lanier Vacuaplanes were built in the 1930s, followed by three Paraplanes from about 1948, before the Paraplane Commuter 110 which first flew in 1958.
The Commuter 110 had a wing area of 111 sq ft (10.3 sq.m), large for its 20 ft 7 in (6.28 m) span, and controllable air entrance slots (“Vacua-Jets”) under the lower surface near its leading edge, passing air to the upper surface for boundary layer control. Other details of the upper surface are scarce but photographs appear to show rear hinged, single-piece slats over Vacua-cells as well as narrow open channels next to the fuselage in the very long wing root fairings. Structurally, the cantilever mid wing had strongly cranked inner sections and was tapered in plan with elliptical wing tips. The outer panels carried control surfaces which operated differentially as ailerons and together as flaps. In addition, there were split flaps under the trailing edges of the wing roots.
The fuselage of the Commuter 110 was a semi-monocoque structure, flat-sided and tapering upwards markedly aft of the wing roots to the tail. The pilot sat in an enclosed cockpit long enough to contain a second seat in tandem, the canopy merging into the upper fuselage at its rear. One source describes the Commuter as a single seat aircraft, another as a one or two seater. The Commuter’s empennage was conventional, with straight edged, square-tipped horizontal surfaces and a straight edged rudder with a trim tab mounted on a narrow fin with a fillet to the fuselage. There was a 150 hp (112 kW) Lycoming O-320 air-cooled flat-four engine in the nose, driving a two-blade propeller. It had a fixed conventional undercarriage with cantilever main legs mounted on the lower fuselage and a short-legged tailwheel on the sloping underside, about halfway between the edges of the root fairings and the extreme tail. The mainwheels had brakes and the tailwheel was steerable.
The Commuter made its first flight in 1958. Described as an STOL aircraft, it had respectable takeoff and landing characteristics, though no records comparing performance with open and closed Vacua-cells seems to have survived. A more recent study suggests the known figures were not exceptional given its thick wing, weight and power. Perhaps more significantly, the authors’ computed aerodynamic investigations of open or slatted upper wing surfaces, though made at very low Reynolds numbers, show no evidence that Vacua-cells enhanced wing performance.
The name, Paraplane, fell out of copyright and was adopted for powered parachutes c.2000.
Lanier Paraplane PL-8 N4157A
Lanier Paraplane Commuter 110 Engine: Lycoming O-320, 150hp Propeller: 2-bladed McCauley, 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) diameter metal, fixed pitch Wingspan: 20’7″ (6.28 m) Wing area: 111.0 sq ft (10.31 m2) Aspect ratio: 3.8 Length: 21’5″ (6.53 m) Empty weight: 780 lb (354 kg) Gross weight: 1,280 lb (581 kg) normal Max takeoff weight: 1,400 lb (635 kg) ferrying Fuel capacity: 24 US gal (20 Imp gal; 91 L) normal, in wing tanks; 44 US gal (37 Imp gal; 166 L) for ferrying Max speed: 165 mph (266 km/h, 143 kn) Cruise speed: 151 mph (243 km/h, 131 kn) Stall: 30 mph Range: 625 mi (1,006 km, 543 nmi) normal, with 45 min res Service ceiling: 23,000 ft (7,000 m) Rate of climb: 1,500 ft/min (7.6 m/s) Take-off and landing speeds: less than 30 mph (48 km/h) Take-off and landing runs: 60 ft (18 m) Seats: 1-2
Edward H Lanier and son (Edward M) Miami and Jacksonville FL, Covington KY. USA
1943 (E M) Lanier Aircraft Corp Marlton NJ. USA
The elder Lanier was also inventor of the ice cream cone, which he created while an exhibitor at the 1898 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Although he had a profitable business selling patented cone-making machines, his real fascination was with flight.
Lanier conducted a series of experiments 1928-33 to explore ideas on low-speed flight. The idea was to adopt the vacuum principle for inherent stability, especially at stalling conditions. Low speed was achieved by placing an upwardly-open concave cell (“vacuum cell”) in the center section of the aircraft, most often blending into the fuselage. Slots were also involved. Hence reduced air pressure evolved in the cell which, of course, had a positive influence on the lift. Most Vacuplanes involved the University of Miami aeronautics department and its director, Prof F H Given, to some degree.
In the early 1930s Edward H. Lanier published six US patents concerned with increased aircraft lift and stability, minimising the stall, sideslip and spin. This was to be achieved through vacuum chamber (“Vacua-cells”), initially in the upper fuselage but later in the upper wing, where the reduced pressure established by airflow over a curved surface would act on the lower surface inside the cell, providing lift. The second patent suggests that the cell should contain angled spanwise slats to prevent air entering them at low speeds and that these should be adjustable so that the cells could be closed when required. The earlier patents stress stability improvements; claims of enhanced lift begin with the fourth patent. Five Lanier Vacuaplanes were built in the 1930s, followed by three Paraplanes from about 1948, before the Paraplane Commuter 110 which first flew in 1958.
Relative US patents from 1930-33: #1,750,529, #1,779,005, #1,803,805, #1,813,627, #1,866,214, and #1,913,809.
