H o m e b uil d e r 's C or n e r
Barn Finds
Discovering
hidden treasures
By Chad Jensen
There is a ton of them out there. One-offs and
designs that just didn't become popular. I recently
found myself in a barn in central Illinois where
there was not one but two of these lesser-known
types of experimental airplanes. Oddly enough,
both of them were called Termites, though they
were completely different. One of them was a Smitty's
Termite (or Smith Special or Smith Termite), designed
and built by Wilbur Smith in the 1950s after he built a
Pietenpol Sky Scout in 1930. It's a single-place parasol and looks very similar to the Sky Scout. It was
powered by a Kawasaki engine of unknown horsepower. The other, simply called a Termite, was
a single-place biplane, powered by a very rare Lycoming O-145.
As I pored over these two barn finds, I couldn't help
but wish that it was me who had found them, but I was
with the gentleman who did. He is a pilot, but he was
unsure of what the airplanes were
or what they were worth.
in central Illinois for so many years, what else is out
there right under our noses?
Now, don't go rooting through every barn you see just
to check out what may be hiding inside, but if you know
of an airplane hanging out in a barn or some other shed,
show it to me! I'll post them on the Homebuilders HQ
Facebook page…this could be interesting!
Zenith Video Update
Below you'll see the latest video update on the Zenith project that EAA staff has been busily working on. Our twiceweekly sessions have turned out a complete empennage,
and by the time you read this, the wings will be nearly
complete while we stare down the plans and instructions
for the fuselage. The goal is still Memorial Day weekend for
a first flight, and with the continued help of dedicated staff
builders, this has a certain chance of becoming reality!
That's a really tough question, and
not one I need to answer here, but
what I am really curious about is
what else is out there? You see, I
lived not 10 miles from this particular barn for 12 years prior to
coming to EAA, and I had no clue
these two aircraft were around.
No one did, really. At least, no one
ever said anything about them. So
if these two airplanes have been
in that barn for many, many years,
even being flown up until the early
2000s, and I was unaware of them,
having lived and breathed aviation
On the cover: Bob Barrows fies his Bearhawk LSA for EAA's cameras.
(Photography by Phil High)
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