Joel C. Custer

Joel Custer was born in Baltimore, MD. While in college, he began collecting pictures, magazines, and corporate handout material on the Channel Wing aircraft. After graduate school, he began researching his grandfather’s patents and discussing his concept with aerodynamics experts and entrepreneurs. That research led him to corporation documents, court records, and the National Archives. For years he worked in Washington, D.C., spending his lunch hours doggedly exploring the SEC, Library of Congress, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and district court libraries, inspired to dig further with each discovery. When Joel published his Channel Wing website (custerchannelwing.net), it opened a communications link to the world. He received emails from people in New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France, as well as the United States, who shared Channel Wing memories, memorabilia, pictures, letters, and stories.

Joel is a graduate of Asbury University (Wilmore, KY), Trinity Divinity School (Deerfield, IL), George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), and The George Washington University (Washington, DC).