Ernest Christley wrote:
flybynightkarmarepair wrote:

Various low aspect ratio designs have been flow since the twenties,
it's true. The Burnellis, the Spratt, the Fike designs. The Dyke Delta
is a low aspect double delta, with the main cabin airfoil shaped. But
true lifting bodies were basically unknown until the 1960's. John
McPhee wrote about one of them in "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed". The the
Facetmobile is, IMHO, the most successful general aviaition true
lifting body design.


I've heard this stated several times, and always found it a bit strange.

What is it that makes the Facetmobile so successful? A single prototype
that crashed, vs the Dyke Delta that has had dozens flying and about
half a dozen currently airworthy. Why is the Dyke Delta not considered
a lifting body design? The fuselage provides the majority of the lift
at cruise, according to John Dyke and verified in XPlane (if that can be
considered any sort of verification).

This is an admittedly arbitrary distinction. The cabin on a Dyke Delta
is, again, IMHO, not well integrated into the fuselage/wing - MY
definition of a lifting body is that it's ALL an integrated whole.
Compare these pictures of a Dyke Delta:
http://www.pivot.net/~psi/philt2.htm
and the Facetmobile:
http://members.aol.com/slicklynne/FMX4IF1.JPG
The other piece of my arbitrary distinction is that the Dyke Delta has
discernable wings, while the Facetmobile doesn't.

I think the Dyke Delta is a great airplane; one I've loved since I read
about it in Air Progress probably nearly 40 years ago.