Davis wing

The Davis wing is an aircraft wing design that was used for some time on a variety of World War II aircraft, most notably a number of designs from Consolidated Aircraft, the most notable being the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. Thicker and with lower drag than most contemporary designs, it allowed high speeds and lift even at high angles of attack. Its use ended almost immediately following World War Two.

In the summer of 1937 Reuben H. Fleet, president of Consolidated Aircraft met with David R. Davis. Davis was a freelance aeronautical engineer who was looking for development funds for his wing design, the "Fluid Foil". Davis had designed the wing "in reverse", starting with a basic low-drag teardrop shape and then modifying it to provide lift. In comparison to conventional designs, Davis's design was relatively thick, having a short chord while still being deep enough to allow a high aspect ratio. Davis claimed the new wing would offer reduced drag over designs then in use, and would offer considerable lift even at a small angle of attack. Additionally the thickness of the wing provided space for fuel storage, or even embedding engines, an idea that was in vogue at the time.

He approached Consolidated to license it for their large flying boats. The ability to generate lift at low angles of attack made it particularly interesting for use in flying boats as it would reduce the need to pull up the nose for takeoff and landing, which was often limited in flying boats due to the way they interacted with the water.

Neither Fleet nor Consolidated's chief engineer, Isaac M. Laddon were impressed. Davis initially failed to convince them to try out his new design. A few days later, however, Laddon changed his mind and convinced Fleet to pay for construction of a model and wing wind tunnel test at the California Institute of Technology. They intended to compare the design to one that had been designed in-house.

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