Back To The Future: The Quest For The Grand Slam Homebuilt

The EOS/001 experimental aircraft design at Oshkosh 1973 with the C-5A

 There's a pretty good chance you have no idea what this little experimental airplane is that's sitting on runway 18/36 at Oshkosh '73 under the wing of the huge Lockheed C-5A Galaxy.  This was just 2 years after the BD-5 had electrified Oshkosh, and this little single-seat airplane had come along to offer up some competition in the 2-stroke powered super-cool looking and cheap-to-build arena.  

 More on the airplane in a moment, but first it's interesting that this picture was taken right out on the runway.  If I remember correctly, there was no place to put the C-5A as this was long before AeroShell Square existed, so they left it on the runway, which was pretty cool because we were allowed out there in the evening to look things over.  For some reason, the little all white EOS/001 prototype had been positioned out there as well.  I was only 12 at the time, but I was very knowledgeable about what was going on in the homebuilt world, and we had a BD-5 kit sitting in the living room at home, so I was paying real close attention to what this EOS airplane was all about.

 I should probably clarify that the outer wing panels aren't installed on the airplane in this pic.  I'm not sure why they weren't on it, but I'm pretty sure they had been on it during the week sometime, but maybe they weren't.  I checked the Oshkosh365 online back issue archive of Sport Aviation earlier today (a fab perk of being an EAA member) and found a few articles on the EOS/001 from late 1972 and 1973.  From what I found, the airplane still hadn't flown when it was at Oshkosh in 73.  In fact, I can't find any record that the airplane ever did fly.  It's a bit of a mystery, and I'm hoping someone has some info on whatever happened to this great looking little airplane.  If you do, please let me know!

The sleek and simple EOS/001 homebuilt from the early 70's

 Here's the real point of all this: we need a 'grand slam' single-seat homebuilt airplane to emerge into the marketplace.  An airplane that can satisfy 4 major desires:

 1) affordable

 2) great performance but not excessively demanding to fly

 3) relatively and realistically easy to build

 4) electrifying looks

 These were the 4 big promises of the BD-5, tho I believe it was coloring outside the lines on some of the claims.  Then it left thousands of builders stranded without complete kits as the 70's progressed.  The EOS/001 actually looked like it was possibly better suited to fulfill those desires, but it disappeared pretty much without a trace.  The RV-3 had hit the scene around this time, and while it's a fantastic airplane, it's really more work and expense than what I think the mass market is looking for.  Then the Ultralight movement came along in the late 70's with the idea of inexpensive flying, but none of those airplane could ever offer the same kind of experience as a BD-5 or EOS.  There have been some other designs along the way over the years, but the definitive single-seat, affordable and easy to build 'electrifying' airplane still doesn't seem to exist.  Maybe I'm missing a great design... if so, please let me know.

 I am excited however at what Sonex has been working on to address much of what I'm talking about.  They are currently building the prototype Onex aircraft, a single-seat derivative of the popular Sonex airplanes.  I really like what the Sonex airplanes have to offer, but I know a lot of people wouldn't say they look 'electrifying'.  Regardless, the Onex definitely looks very interesting.  Hopefully we'll see what it really has to offer at Oshkosh 2010.  And you can be sure I'll be posting lots more about it soon.

 Ultimately I'm trying to stir up thought and discussion.  I even have my own design for an electrifying airplane that has recently fallen out of my head and onto paper, or at least onto the computer screen.  I've seen a lot of cool airplanes over the years, and I gotta say that what I've come up with is right at the top of the pile.  It's so good in fact that I'm not gonna share any details right now.  I'm trying to find other people who have real vision for filling this need in the experimental aircraft world, and then we'll see what comes next.

 Mostly I'm looking for people to talk back... please, say something : )

The First Electric Airplane - The BD-5 Micro At Oshkosh 1971!

Jim Bede and a big crowd with the prototype BD-5 at Oshkosh 1971

 C’mon, work with me here a little - I’m not talking about electric propulsion, we’re just starting to get that figured out… I’m talking about how the BD-5 Micro electrified the homebuilt airplane world in 1971 when it first showed up at Oshkosh.  It hadn’t even flown when it was on display that year, but as these pix show, interest was very high.  In fact, by the end of August 1971, 800 orders had been taken, and by the end of that year: 4,300!

 It’s pretty clear that today the experimental airplane movement is in pretty desperate need of an airplane to come along and stir the imagination like Bede’s little Micro did.  And let me be clear, whatever this new airplane is, it desperately needs to be wrapped in the truth.  Truth about performance, truth about ’build-ability’ and truth about how easy it is (or isn't), to fly.  I’ll admit I’m still a really big fan of the BD-5, but in those early years, the little red V-tail pusher didn’t really spend much time leaning up against the truth tree.

 These pictures from Oshkosh 1971 are a story all by themselves.  When I was trying to find a useable pic of the prototype V-tail BD-5 last year, I scoured the internet with very little success.  There just aren’t very many out there, and even fewer that are really good.  And then I was flipping thru an old photo album when my eyes almost fell out.  Turns out I've got my own pix, and they’re actually really good!  I’m pretty sure I’m even the one who took them, as a 10 year old! 

 So, today I ran these 3 thru Photoshop and got them looking remarkably crisp.  I hope you grasp some of the history that they display.

The 2-stroke snowmobile-style engine system revealed in the prototype BD-5

 The pic above is interesting because it shows the engine compartment with the cover off for all to see.  The BD-5 was ahead of its time on several accounts, and the idea of using a 2-stroke snowmobile-type engine was one of them.  Given all the complications that were to follow related to the engine systems alone, I’m surprised they were so willing to let it all be seen like this.  Maybe even Bede didn’t realize he was already in over his head.  It’s also cool to see that Bede (in the white shirt, sunglasses and EAA hat) was letting people try the Micro on for size.  You also get a really good look at the aluminum tube main spar for the wing.  Bede had used that feature on the BD-1 which later became the American Yankee.  He also incorporated it into all of his other designs as far as I know.

 This prototype BD-5 was actually an aluminum skeleton under-structure with fiberglass panels giving it the beautiful shape.  It wasn’t much later when all that was changed to an aluminum skin over more traditional formers and stringers.  The V-tail disappeared too.  In reality, pretty much everything changed before they really had a frozen, completely viable airframe design.

A crowd gathered to watch the BD-5 engine run!

 This pic above doesn’t really need much else said, it’s pretty much off-the-scale-cool seeing the prototype BD-5, with the V-tail, before it had flown, at Oshkosh 1971, with the engine running, and a crowd of eager onlookers of all ages.  Wow. 

 As I pointed out in my previous post about the BD-5 program, the BD-5 dream just couldn’t make the leap to reality, and thousands of people who thought they were gonna be screamin’ around the sky in a Micro never got to.  Some think that’s a good thing as the airplane also wasn’t the easiest to fly due to the side stick controller, the low seating position, and the relatively high performance.

 All this brings me back to the need for a really great, affordable, buildable, beautiful experimental airplane for the masses… an ‘electric’ airplane, tho it might not be electric powered.  I’ve got some ideas (don’t I always?) on how we might find that airplane.  I’m gonna think them thru a little more, and then I might toss my idea out there and see if anyone responds.  I’ll give you a little hint: I’ll be looking for a team.

LUCY THM: The Fine Line Between Genius And Insanity

From designer Pietro Terzi, the LUCY THM

Umm, the LUCY THM is, kinda unusual(!)

(5 pix + 2 videos)

 I’m guessing most of you would be quick to push this unusual bizarre looking aircraft well over on the ‘insanity’ side of the table, but I’m not so quick to do so.  I love outside-the-box thinking, tho I will admit that this seems to be a little more like inside-the-padded-room thinking.  However, I’ve learned that it’s far more wise to wait and see if someone is on to something good before I declare that it won’t work.

 The machine is called the LUCY THM (I don’t know why) and it comes from Italy and designer Pietro Terzi.  And while it appears that it hasn’t flown, you should take note that Terzi has designed other aircraft as can be seen in the last image (after the jump).  It’s also important to note that the workmanship on this carbon fiber airframe appears to be very excellent, which again should add some credibility to the concept.  Construction on the project began in 2007.

 The LUCY THM was conceived to be a ’Personal Air Vehicle’ or PAV.  That’s one of the reasons that it has those odd looking pods hanging below the cockpit… you sit in it more like a motorcycle, with your legs down in the pods.  It seems this arrangement is meant to make you feel more like the airplane is part of you, or as the LUCY website says: “a ‘technological suite’ worn to get yourself about in the air”.

 If I read the specs right, it has a max takeoff weight of about 880 pounds, so part of the idea here is to have a lightweight airframe coupled with lots of thrust to make it have great STOL performance.  And this is where I see something that I think makes a lot of sense in the design.  You can see from the images that the prop has a huge diameter, over 10 feet, and it's driven by an 84hp Hirth 2-stroke engine.  With the constant speed prop geared way down, this little machine should have some serious thrust!  And one thing I think we overlook in aircraft design is the ‘thrust’ we get out of our engine/prop combinations.  Horsepower doesn’t really mean much if a lot of it is lost at the prop.  Large slow turning props can move huge amounts of air, so I’m prepared to give the designer a lot of credit for working to make an aircraft with more thrust than its weight (which is their claim).  This is the reason they actually call it ESTOL (Extremely Short Takeoff and Landing), and why they also claim it would climb at 3,000+ feet per minute.  Max cruise is claimed at 130 mph.

Click to read more ...

BD-5 On A Stick - Best Wind Direction Indicator Ever!

BD-5 wind direction indicator at Mishawaka Pilots Club (3C1) in Elkhart, Indiana

This must be the best looking WDI ever!

 I made a late afternoon road trip about 35 miles from home today to check out an airplane (more on that another day) at the Mishawaka Pilots Club airport (3C1) located at the edge of Elkhart, Indiana.  I've known about this airport for at least 30 years but for some reason I hadn't ever been there before.  Now I know I should've done this a long time ago!  Wow, what a cool place... a beautiful clearing at the edge of the city with a 2,243' x 40' asphalt runway (3-21) and an awesome 3,140' x 100' grass runway (12-30).  It's also a very unique place because even tho it's a public use airport, it's really an aviation community, owned and operated by a group of pilot / shareholders.  You can learn more on the way that works at the Mishawaka Pilots Club 'about' page.  This place lives for 'sport aviation', which already makes it one of my favorite places ever : )

 So I get out of the car and with just a glimpse off in the distance I instantly realize that their wind direction indicator (WDI) out in the middle of the airport is a BD-5 on a stick!  I have some pretty sharp radar for that gorgeous BD-5 shape, and the fact that these guys are using one for the WDI told me straight up that this is an exceptionally cool airport.  I've had some pretty extensive exposure to Jim Bede's little airplane over the years, and my post 'Almost 40 Years Later The BD-5 Still Looks Hot!' from last year shows that I believe it's gotta be one of the 10 best looking airplanes ever. 

 I got permission to go get some up-close pix of the 'BD-5 on a stick' so I could share it with the world.  I was really pleased to see that it's in great shape, unlike just about every tetrahedron I ever saw on an airport that was usually heavily dented, rusty, and could be heard squealing as it turned from the other side of the airport.  Nope, this was by far the nicest WDI ever.  I guess it's actually very cool and kinda sad all at the same time.  Cool because it's so beautiful to look at and sad because this is just about the best thing you could do with the several thousand incomplete BD-5 kits scattered all over that are buried under 30+ years of dust.

 I'm just really glad to see that my new favorite airport in northern Indiana also has the coolest wind direction indicator in the world : )

 Close-up of the pivot for the BD-5 on a stick

There should be one of these at every airport!

AirPigz Podcast #11: Flight Journal Editor & Pitts Fanatic Budd Davisson

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 Budd Davisson is the Editor-in-Chief of Flight Journal magazine

 
Budd also runs airbum.com with tons of aviation content from the last 40 years

 
Budd also has over 30 years experience giving dual in the Pitts Special!

Interview with Budd Davisson - 1:00:52 

 Budd Davisson has been writing about his amazing flying experiences for 40 years now, and he's still going strong!  He keeps busy as the Editor-in-Chief of Flight Journal magazine, a fabulous publication and website with an emphasis on aviation history, including detailed stories on aircraft, people and events from military aviation.

 Budd also runs airbum.com, a website full of his pilot reports and photography from the last 40 years of his work as an aviation journalist.  It's a tremendous resource for all kinds of great avgeek info.

 And if all that wasn't enough, Budd has been running a Pitts Special flight school for well over 30 years!  He specializes in teaching people how to handle the Pitts in the landing phase, and in the process winds up making much better pilots out of them.  He'll pass 5,000 hours of dual-given this year - amazing!

 This interview was especially cool for me since I first starting reading Budd's great articles back in the mid 70's when I was a teenager.  The type of aircraft he wrote about, and the informative, personal, and fun style of his writing made him by far the most influential aviation writer in my life.

Budd Davisson is sitting in the front seat of the prototype two-place Pitts Special back in 1973.  Bob Schnuerle is in the rear seat with Bob Herendeen sitting on the wing, and then Tom Poberezny, Curtis Pitts and Gene Dearing.  We talk about this fabulous photo in the interview.

Poll: Which Logo Best Represents The Experimental Aircraft Association?

Please Vote In The Poll Above

 If you’ve only known the Experimental Aircraft Association in the last 10 years or so, the current logo on the right may be all you know, but people who’ve been around the EAA for many years know that there’s a rich history that goes with a logo that looked a lot more like the one on the left.  

 If it weren't for the fact that I’ve been an EAA member since 1970, when I was just 9 years old (I’m EAA# 57138), and that this will be my 33rd Oshkosh (not counting the 1969 Rockford convention I was at) I would never attempt to deal with the issue of the EAA logo design.  But, since I have a long and passionate history with this organization (that really is the ‘Spirit of Aviation’) I feel like I have a right to stir the pot on this issue.

 The original EAA logo looks a lot like the retro-styled one I designed above on the left, but I’ve actually made quite few detailed updates.  Most notable are the shortening of ‘association’ to just ‘assoc.’, which allows all of the letters to be quite a bit larger than before… and the airplane has been modernized a bit and includes a simple spinning prop detail.  There are other minor changes but you probably wouldn't notice without a direct comparison.

 The current logo, on the right above, seemed to be the product of an effort to mainstream the organization with more of an ad agency kind of feel to it.  I know I’m not alone in having been very frustrated that this logo was adopted… not only because it didn’t accurately reflect the organization, but also because it appeared it could actually have a negative effect overall.  There’s really no way of knowing what exactly the effect has been, but I know my gut tells me that it was definitely a step backward.

 So I recently took what graphic design skill I have and set out to produce a sample that I felt honored the early logo while also being strong and relevant to ‘today’, a logo to lead the organization into the future.  This poll is designed to give us all an idea as to how people feel about returning to a more retro styled logo.  Hopefully, if enough noise is made about this, the leaders will take a serious look at making what I believe is an essential change for the better.

 Which of the two logos above do you feel best represents 
the Experimental Aircraft Association?

Video: Relentless Beauty - Nemesis NXT

Words not needed.

CoolPix - Homebuilt: 1959 Trautman 'Road Air' Flying Car (Sorta)

(click pic for hi-res)

Most of the large collection of airplanes at the Fantasy of Flight Museum are either military or production models, there are only a handful of special ’experimental’ aircraft.  The one pictured here in this CoolPix is one of those exceptions… it’s a one-of-a-kind flying car named ‘Road Air’ built in 1959 by a guy named Herb Trautman.  Now it’s important to understand that the term flying car has to be used rather loosely here as it seems this unusual machine only flew once, getting just 3 feet off the ground.  Herb decided after that 90 mph experience that ‘Road Air’ really wasn’t fit for either the road or the air.

 The somewhat lifting body design actually has pivoting wings that are stowed behind the main gear.  In these pictures, the left wing is partially swung out.  I couldn’t find any pictures of this thing with the wings fully deployed, but after giving it some thought, I think Mr. Trautman was on to some pretty good thinking here.  To me,  the biggest problems are that the wings are pretty small, it’s kinda heavy with a 1,000 pound gross weight, and it only has 85hp.  Add to that the likelihood that he didn’t have the benefit of wind tunnel testing to ensure that the tail surfaces were up to the task, and it’s easy to see why it only flew once.

 However, when I think thru all of the flying car designs I’ve seen over the years, the basic design philosophy here seems remarkably viable.  It sure would be interesting to see how a lightweight carbon fiber version with about 120hp and more wing area would perform.  We may never know, but at least it’s really cool to see this unique piece of aviation history beautifully on display at Fantasy of Flight : )

Left wing of the 'Road Air' flying car partially deployed

All things considered, the 'Road Air' was a really interesting concept

Video: Sport Amphibian Perfection! RV-7 On Floats

 This video is a few years old now, but it's always a good time to see such a well executed and great flying machine!  I saw the airplane at Oshkosh last year as the pic below shows, and hope to be able to take a closer look at the performance and fun it offers sometime in the future... seems like there should be a lot more amphibious RV-7's out there!

The beautiful amphibious RV-7 on a rainy morning at Oshkosh 2009

CoolPix - Homebuilt: John Moody Flying The Easy Riser At SNF10

(click pic for hi-res)

 I might be throwing a lot of new CoolPix images at you in the near future since it’s so much more interesting to see an image fill your monitor so you can get in on the details.  This ‘Homebuilts’ entry is a picture I took last Saturday morning at Sun n’ Fun of John Moody flying the Larry Mauro designed Easy Riser. 

 As I mentioned in the SNF 35 picture post from several days ago, John Moody pretty much started the ultralight movement many years ago flying a foot-launched Easy Riser up at Oshkosh.  Prior to that event, it just wasn’t really thought by the masses that a small powerplant could transform a hang glider into a self-motivating flying machine.  I just think it’s so cool to see him still flying an airplane like the Easy Riser about 35 years later!

 The large version of this image really pulls you in and lets you see details like the many cables used for bracing the airframe, the translucent wing and rudder covering, and John having fun in the morning sunshine.  It’s also interesting to ponder just how advanced this little airplane is with its biplane, swept wings and no horizontal tail.  There are even kits available for the Easy Riser which allow you to get yourself off the ground in style for not much cabbage.

 You can learn more about John and get more info on the Easy Riser kits at PioneerFlyer.com.