It is an interesting concept, but if that beasty loses power I'll bet
  your options are few.  Even if "windmilling," that squirrel cage on
  the leading edge of the wing is going to produce a ton of drag.
  Setting up a nice glide would be problematic.

   Mark W.

   Good point. I would say worse than a helicopter.

   Paul Lamar

  Not to mention, if this concept was viable, the big riverboat style
  paddle propulsion would still be in vogue.  Props are much more
  efficient.

  Chris C.

  Maybe they should have put the paddle wheel on the front of
  the boat and then the boat would be floating on a cushion of air.
  Patent applied for :)

  Paul Lamar

 Hmmm recycle...
 See Engineering For The Amateur Aircraft Builder, by Raoul J. Hoffman.
 The nose of the airfoil, March 1943. p69-70.  Diagram #15 shows 3
 variants of this design with a smaller diameter lawn mower.
 "On small models they showed great improvement.  On a full-sized
 airplane the increase was negligible."
 Cheers
 Cary


 Can you scan some pictures Cary. I would like to
 see how he did it.

 I have my own invention along these lines :)

 Paul Lamar

Nice conveyor belt of death ;)
The pics are poor as they were just quickie illustrations as part of a
larger reprinted article.
Unfortunately, the origins of the designs were not identified.
Presumably, these were based on even older patents / NACA papers.
Cool models but fanwing really need to test scale effects (perhaps they
already have!? :)
It is amazing what the early pioneers tried - Patents invalidated!
Cary

It's a joke ;)

Paul Lamar