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
Celebrating Older Homebui l ts Steve Wittman's Buttercup An the height of his air racing career in the 1930s, Steve Wittman needed an airplane to ferry parts to various race sites to keep his racers Buster and Bonzo fl ying competitively. At the time, he also was the fi xed-base operator at the Oshkosh Airport (later to be renamed Wittman Field in his honor), and the airplane helped keep parts in supply there, too. After fl ying many of the airplanes (Aeroncas, Cubs, Taylorcraft) developed to fl y behind the "new" fl at-four engines developed by Continental and Lycoming, Steve said, "I just felt they weren't getting the performance they should for the horsepower…each of them was lacking in some respect or another. I accumulated a personal list of features I would like in a personal small airplane, and to get them I had to design my own airplane." The airplane also served another purpose. By then Steve had designed and patented his leaf spring landing gear. And thinking it was "the best thing since the wheel was invented," he wanted an airplane that could demonstrate the landing gear's capabilities. Thus, he designed and built Buttercup in 1937, fi rst fl ying it in 1938. The side-by-side, two-place airplane was powered by a C-85 engine, would top out at 150 mph, and had amazingly short takeoff and landing rolls. Were it not for World War II, Jack wrote in "Buttercup," the impressive design may have gone into production. On a cross-country trip home from Washington, D.C., a chance landing at the Hagerstown, Maryland airport to avoid storms brought the homebuilt to the attention of the owners of Fairchild Aircraft. After thoroughly examining the airplane, Fairchild made an offer to Steve to put the airplane into production, using a Continental A-65 engine. Earnest money was exchanged, a new engine mount was designed…and eventually Steve was asked to modify the airplane into a four-place machine, all of which was rolling along smoothly until an Army Air Corps inspector came to check on the production of Fairchild PT-19s and told Fairchild, "This is a war effort. You make PT-19s, period." The end. That production hope dashed, Steve used Buttercup as a test bed for his many other innovative ideas over the years. He and his fi rst wife, Dorothy, who was also a pilot, fl ew Buttercup all over the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas—and it was their primary transport between their homes in Oshkosh and on the Leeward Air Ranch in Florida—until its fabric grew weary in the early 1960s. By then Steve had designed the faster Tailwind, which he used for most of his travel. Still, Buttercup was brought out occasionally for a cross- country trip. When Steve and his second wife, Paula, perished in the crash of their O&O; Special in April 1995, Buttercup went into the Wittman Hangar on EAA's Pioneer Airport. But…the design now has a second life, thanks to the efforts of Earl Luce of Brockport, New York. A veteran Tailwind builder, Earl also admired the Buttercup. He says he kept Jack Cox's 1989 article about Buttercup at his bedside for years. Finding himself missing the landings he would make at some of the smaller strips he'd landed at before he built the faster Tailwind, Earl decided to tackle replicating Buttercup. While at EAA's annual convention in 1997, Earl took detailed measurements of Buttercup, returned home, and started cutting tubing. Three-and-a-half years later, his Buttercup made its fi rst fl ight, and he's been fl ying it regularly since. (It was featured in the April 2003 issue of Sport Aviation) Since then, Earl has sold more than 100 sets of plans for Buttercup, and several more examples are nearly ready for fl ight. You can learn more about Earl's replica Buttercup and a tri-gear version he's currently refi ning—as well as order plans— at Earl's website, www.LuceAir.com. 14 NO. 1 / SEPTEMBER 2012