The Bowers Flybaby is a Plans Built, all wood, low wing
monoplane. It was designed by famed Boeing
aircraft designer Peter Bowers for a Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) design competition.
The Flybaby has clean, beautiful, timeless lines that
harkens back to the golden age of flight.
Some attractive features of the Flybaby is its low cost to build and own,
its versatility as an aircraft, and the large supportive Flybaby builder/pilot
community. It can fly with a multitude
of aircraft or automobile engine options.
Though the Flybaby is a single seater it is not a small
aircraft and is comparable to a Piper J-3 cub in size. This gives it a solid feel and a comfortable
cockpit for larger pilots. Most
flybabies are open cockpit mono-planes but Peter Bowers includes a biplane
version of the plans. Interestingly you
can build the monoplane and then later 'upgrade' to biplane using the same
fuselage and can even switch back and forth between the two in an
afternoon. Builders that fly all year or
live in colder climes often enclose the cockpit with a canopy making it an all
weather machine.
Can't afford a kitplane?
Build a Flybaby from plans. Even
in this day and age the Flybaby is still considered one of the easiest aircraft
to build and has one of the highest completion rates of any homebuilt
aircraft. This is due in large part to
the simplicity and robustness of Pete's design and the active Flybaby community
that is always willing to offer assistance.
Many parts of the Flybaby can be built from materials found at a your
local lumberyard, Home Depot, or Lowes as opposed to the more costly aircraft
suppliers. This also makes the
inevitable upkeep and repair more affordable as well.
By far the best resource on all things Flybaby is Ron
Wanttaja's Flybaby website.
I have watched this website and followed the Flybaby community
for years and in this authors opinion it is one of the best homebuilt aircraft
communities available, hands down.
Like?
Images used with permission from Ron Wanttaja.
