Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/81495
Golden Anniversary Homebuilts The early 1960s was a prolifi c time for homebuilts. A review of the contents of Sport Aviation from 1960 to 1965 offers an incredible list of new homebuilts introduced. Some were successful, others not so much. The inspiration for this surge in new designs very likely was an EAA Design Competition announced in 1957. Organized by Paul Poberezny and Bob Nolinske, then EAA's secretary/treasurer, the competition had an original completion date of the 1960 fl y-in. That timeline proved too challenging, so the deadline was extended to 1962. More than 40 designs entered the competition, but by the time the 10th annual EAA fl y-in convention began in 1962, only six entries were presented for judging: Pete Bowers' Fly Baby, Eugene Turner's T-40, Leonard Eaves' modifi ed Cougar, Tony Spezio's Tuholer, Leon Tefftt's Contestor, and Joe Lacey's Lacey M-10. The goals of the competition were to develop an aircraft: 1 for sport fl ying 2 that was easy and safe to fl y 3 that could be taken to and stored in a garage 4 that was especially suited for amateur construction 5 that could be built and operated at moderate cost. Bowers Fly Baby In the end, the Bowers Fly Baby won the competition, with the T-40 taking second, followed by the modifi ed Cougar in third place. The Fly Baby enjoys the greatest long-term success; plans are still available (Visit Ron Wanttaja's unoffi cial Fly Baby website www.BowersFlyBaby.com for more information.) Interestingly, Bowers had started designing the all- wood Fly Baby in 1951. The idea for the aircraft came from a Class A/B gas model airplane that Bowers had built in 1940, with which he set some model airplane records. One important factor for Bowers was that the aircraft have low-span loading, Writing in "The Fly Baby Story" in the December 1962 issue of Sport Aviation and referencing the successful early homebuilts constructed by Les Long and Tom Story, Bowers said, "The 'Wimpy,' 'Little Gee Bee,' and the Storys all got their good performance on low power mainly from a feature well known to the prewar homebuilder… low-span loading…It's not a given area and wing loading that does the job; it's the span that the area is distributed over." When the EAA Design Competition was announced, Bowers was motivated to complete the design and build the aircraft. In fact, Bowers built the Fly Baby twice—once for the 1960 contest that was postponed and then again after the plane crashed while being fl own on a local fl ight by another pilot. That happened in April 1962 and sent Bowers into a fl urry to rebuild the aircraft for the 1962 competition. The story of that effort is fully detailed in Bowers' 1962 article. Dyke Delta But not every homebuilder of the time was focusing on the design competition. Other airplanes under development in that same time frame include the Dyke Delta, the Pazmany PL-1, the Thorp T-18, and Volmer Jensen's Sportsman amphibian. Technically, some of these aircraft hadn't yet fl own by 1962, but they certainly count among some of the more well-known homebuilts of that era. Inspired by Alexander Lippisch's delta-wing designs, John Dyke had a goal of creating a delta-wing aircraft that would be trailerable (so it could be stored at home) and easy to construct. He also wanted enough room to transport his then family of four. The airplane had a true, distinctive, double-delta design with folding wings. It was built with 4130 tubing and covered with fi berglass and fabric. The one-plus-three fl ight deck is EAA EXPERIMENTER 15