Cheston Lee Eshelman

Who was Cheston Lee Eshelman?

Cheston Lee Eshelman was born in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania near Gettysburg, and was an American inventor, aviator, manufacturer of aircraft, boats, garden machinery and small automobiles, and founder of the Cheston L. Eshelman Company and Eshelman Motors Corporation in Baltimore and Dundalk, Maryland.

Since 1916 his parents Samuel Clarence Eshelman and Bertha Eshelman had owned and operated the Fox Hill orchards in McKnightstown, and eventually expanded into retailing agricultural implements including Centaur tractors.

In 1941 Cheston Eshelman developed, built and repeatedly demonstrated a wingless pancake-shaped airplane, the NX28993 and NC22070 "Flying Flounder". He also built the Eshelman FW-5. On January 7, 1943, he was awarded Patent 42395 for his small flying wing airplane design.

By 1945 he was producing light commercial aircraft in Dundalk, including the Eshelman Winglet. By mid-century he had set up the Cheston L.