While only one Facetmobile prototype was produced, it has become well known due to its unique nature. The aircraft is unusual in that it is a lifting body – the whole aircraft acts as a low aspect ratio wing: a flat, angular lifting shape, unlike traditional aircraft which use distinct lift-generating wings attached to a non-lifting fuselage.Barnaby and Lynn Wainfan's Facetmobile page, accessed October 24, 2006 Also notably the aircraft's shape is formed of a series of 11 flat surfaces, somewhat similar to the body of the F-117 Nighthawk jet strike aircraft in using flat plates, but without separate wing structures. Although aerodynamic efficiency is reduced due to the simplistic shaping, that shaping reduces structural weight, improving payload mass fraction.
