Burnelli UB-14 and CBY-3
Model Airplane News Cover Art for August, 1937
by Jo Kotula
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The Burnelli CBY-3 Loadmaster was an unconventional transport aircraft designed by United States engineer Vincent Burnelli and built in Canada in 1944 by Canadian Car and Foundry. Burnelli had a lifelong career devoted to exploiting the advantages of a lifting body airfoil concept that characterized many of his earlier aircraft designs.

The CBY-3 "lifting fuselage" was an evolution of the earlier Burnelli UB-14. Burnelli worked as a designer at Canadian Car and Foundry (CanCar) in Montreal, and the CBY-3 was intended for bush operations in northern Canada. The sole prototype was extensively tested but failed to gain a production contract.

  

Left: UB-14 Right: CBY-3

  

Burnelli UB-14 and CBY-3
It Floats!
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The name of the aircraft, CBY-3, was derived from the name of the three partners involved in its creation: CanCar, Burnelli and Lowell Yerex and “3” from the number of partners involved. Lowell Yerex was a New Zealander who had formed TACA – Transportes Aéreos Centroamericanos (Central American Air Transport) in Honduras in 1931, and joined the project when Burnelli convinced him that the CBY-3 could be used as both a cargo and passenger aircraft.

We found this article in Popular Mechanics that sints at one of the many promotional uses of the CBY-3

The CBY-3 in Popular mechanics May, 1937
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A follow-up design in 1942 for the CC&F B-1000, a bomber using the same lifting body principles, remained a "paper project".

If you don't mind a little conspiracy theory paranoia, this video contains some documentary footage of the few Burnelli craft that were built.

Click Here for more information about Burnelli and his Airplanes

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