John D. McKellar passed away September 28, 1998 at 9 p.m., in Sunnyvale Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, due to old age and complications caused by pneumonia at 91 years old. He was regarded as a brilliant man by those who worked with him. Being an aircraft engineer, he had a diverse background and flamboyant career. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1930 with a BS Degree in Electrical Engineering. A member of Sigma Phi Delta Fraternity. He also attended 14 months of ROTC courses and field training in the Vermilion National Guard. Field artillery was his primary military occupational service. His interest in aviation began as a flying cadet in both the Army and Navy reserves. USD had fly-ins on campus during that period of time. In addition to the reserves (1926 to 1929), while on breaks and summer vacations he worked his way through college as a machinist in the factories in Detroit Michigan. His family's business was ranching and farming. Large ranch properties were a lot of work and many people like him pursued other careers in the automotive shops. Companies on record: Hudson Essex, Motor Products Corporation, Chrysler Corporation and Firestone Rubber Company. He was a calculus type, slide ruler user with high aptitudes in the electrical and mechanical areas. His mother (a Coverdale) was an English teacher from Leads England. His father was a rancher and carpenter from Ontario Canada. He once told me that they owned so much property that it ruined them.
The Zimmerman "Flying Pancake" experimental aircraft was the first research and development project that he had worked on which involved tailless flight. This project received some funding from the Navy. It was built at Hampton Rhodes, Virginia in 1934. Charles Zimmerman and Robert Noyes were the principal designers on this project. Deemed to hazardous to fly, it remained a concept model on the ground. One of the problems was engine synchronization. At this time he was a Junior Aeronautical Engineer with the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) working on wind tunnel operations at Langley Field in Virginia.
Before his teaching experience at Cal Poly State University he worked for Hughes Aircraft Company in Burbank, California. His title was Aeronautical Engineer. His project was to calculate speed and stability characteristics on the Hughes H1 Racer airplane. Howard Hughes and Dick Palmer designed the H1 racer. This aircraft was then built by Glen Oderkirk. It captured the world speed record on September 13, 1935. After the Cal Poly days, he once again worked for Hughes in Venice, as an Aeronautical Engineer doing preliminary design.
After surfing the web to check some dates, I read a web page which described what an elusive person Hughes was. He would leave people on their own for weeks and months at a time while he would travel to distant places 
around the world.
The McKellar flying wing was a "unique" project that he initiated when he first started working as an Aeronautical Engineering Instructor at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo from 1936 to 1940. He had his own conceptional idea (outside of other designer's ideas) that an airplane could be controlled without a tail section. It was his design intent that each half of the wing had a control surface that was split along its center-line and opened like a book. The actuating mechanism was a simple dual bell crank system. Northrop used bellows. This would induce drag on one side of the wing, or the other, allowing for directional control of the aircraft. With the help of the school and some students, a working prototype aircraft was built (Sept. 1937 to Jan. 1940). The aircraft was to be test flown at a ranch located in Cholame about fifty miles outside of SLO. Its maiden flight was brief and pathetic. As the story goes, the plane was wrecked during take-off when one of the landing gear struck a berm alongside of the freshly graded runway. The landing gear punctured the wing. A take-off would never be attempted again. There was no more money left to continue experimenting with it. A sufficient proof of concept was not yet achieved. He did approach Hughes with his ideas. However, Hughes was not interested tailless aircraft. It was the first Delta wing design of its type. This Airplane Control System original patent was filed on September 4, 1937. Ronald E. Crandall is co-inventor named on the Hydraulic Stick Control which is another interesting subject.
A few years after WWII, he went to work for Northrop Aircraft Company in Hawthorne, California. Northrop had acquired his patents through the Aircraft Manufacurers Association (AMA. See also Aircraft War Production Council). He had worked there for a while and discovered that his ideas were being applied to the YB-49 flying wing project.
John D. McKellar passed away September 28, 1998 at 9 p.m., in Sunnyvale Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, due to old age and complications caused by pneumonia at 91 years old. He was regarded as a brilliant man by those who worked with him. Being an aircraft engineer, he had a diverse background and flamboyant career. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1930 with a BS Degree in Electrical Engineering. A member of Sigma Phi Delta Fraternity. He also attended 14 months of ROTC courses and field training in the Vermilion National Guard. Field artillery was his primary military occupational service. His interest in aviation began as a flying cadet in both the Army and Navy reserves. USD had fly-ins on campus during that period of time. In addition to the reserves (1926 to 1929), while on breaks and summer vacations he worked his way through college as a machinist in the factories in Detroit Michigan. His family's business was ranching and farming. Large ranch properties were a lot of work and many people like him pursued other careers in the automotive shops. Companies on record: Hudson Essex, Motor Products Corporation, Chrysler Corporation and Firestone Rubber Company. He was a calculus type, slide ruler user with high aptitudes in the electrical and mechanical areas. His mother (a Coverdale) was an English teacher from Leads England. His father was a rancher and carpenter from Ontario Canada. He once told me that they owned so much property that it ruined them.
The Zimmerman "Flying Pancake" experimental aircraft was the first research and development project that he had worked on which involved tailless flight. This project received some funding from the Navy. It was built at Hampton Rhodes, Virginia in 1934. Charles Zimmerman and Robert Noyes were the principal designers on this project. Deemed to hazardous to fly, it remained a concept model on the ground. One of the problems was engine synchronization. At this time he was a Junior Aeronautical Engineer with the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) working on wind tunnel operations at Langley Field in Virginia.
around the world.
