Homebuilders’ 50-Year Reunion

John Morris

50 EAA Fly-Ins at Oshkosh

New signage on the AirVenture Gateway Arch marks the date – 1970 – of the first of 50 consecutive EAA fly-ins at Oshkosh

Hats Off to the Hatz

The 1960s Hatz Biplane was designed originally by John Hatz for amateur builders as a smaller version of a two-seat Waco F vintage biplane.

RVs? They Began With a Stitts

Ray Stitts was a prolific and influential homebuilt designer, and also a founding member of EAA Chapter One at Flabob, California. His low-wing, open-cockpit Stitts Playboy was a popular design in the 1960s and beyond with its steel-tube fuselage and wooden wing construction. Richard VanGrunsen modified a Playboy into his RV-1 and thus spawned a series of all-metal sportplanes that extend to the RV-14. More than 5,500 RV kits have been sold, and 1.5 RV aircraft are completed or flown every day, the company claims.

Testing New Ideas

The futuristic four-seat, retractable gear Dyke Delta first flew in the 1960s. Constructed of steel tube with fiberglass and fabric covering, and a lifting-body fuselage, it is regarded as a tailess double-delta resembling the Saab Draken fighter. A Dyke Delta assisted the Space Program when it flew in NASA-funded tests as a glider to assess the feasibility of lifting-body vehicles. Some 50 Dyke Deltas have flown, and at least three can be seen here at Oshkosh.

Can’t Stop That Quest for Speed

Famed racing pilot Steve Wittman, a long-time manager of Oshkosh Wittman Airport and one who encouraged EAA to move to Oshkosh, designed a small, high-speed cross-country aircraft and later called it the Tailwind. Construction is typical steel-tube fuselage, wooden wings and fabric cover. In 1953, the Tailwind became the first aircraft covered under the FAA's Experimental category to be certified to carry a passenger. More than 350 have been built.

Hummingbird: Once the World’s Smallest

El Chuparosa biplane is only 14 ft long and just under 13 ft in span. Ray Hegy designed it in the late 1940s as the smallest plane in the world capable of carrying a human. The prototype made its flying debut at the Rockford EAA Fly-In in 1960; the aircraft now belongs to the EAA Museum.

Like a Bird

Chuparosa is Spanish for Hummingbird – small and very fast! The airplane was named after the sound they both made in flight. Early homebuilders were known for scrounging and recycling: El Chuparosa features wing spars from a J-3 Cub, the ailerons made from 1929 Douglas O-38 rudders, and engine cheek cowlings made from Fairchild 24 wheelpants. 

Proud to be American

The Lycoming-powered Liberty Sport biplane was originally designed and built by Orval LLoyd in 1965 as a hark back to the wind-in-the-wires flying of the 1930s. Yes, there was nostalgia even in the 1960s, and no, you didn’t have to be there to experience it!

A French Delicacy

Rarely seen in America, The Jodel D.11 is a French two-seat, cranked-wing monoplane of a type quite popular in Europe. It was originally designed and developed by Société Avions Jodel in response to a French government request for a low-wing aircraft for use by the nation's many emerging flying clubs. More than 3,000 have been built, mostly by factories but some as homebuilts. The pretty example here was amateur-built in America and appeared at Oshkosh in 1970.

Cubs – They’re Everywhere!

Not a homebuilt, but the ubiquitous Piper J3 Cub was in strong attendance at Oshkosh 1970 – indeed, there was hardly a fly-in anywhere without one. More than 20,000 were produced between 1938-1947; due to their current popularity, it is believed that there are more J3 Cubs airworthy today than at any one time in their history (they had a high casualty rate as they taught America to fly for World War II, but more are resurrected every year).

Building your own airplane 50 years ago was a brave undertaking as one wrestled with (perhaps not so good) plans and crafted one’s dream from steel tube and fabric, sitka spruce and aluminum. There was no factory support back then – builders would form mutual help groups, often giving rise to new chapters of the Experimental Aircraft Association as they did so. Today, homebuilding is still a brave venture, even with quick-build kits, composite materials and YouTube to see how fellow builders solve every problem. Here at AirVenture a reunion of those at the first Oshkosh fly-in event in 1970 shows what members were building then.

John Morris

John has led Aviation Week's ShowNews, the best-read daily news magazine of aerospace trade shows, for nearly two decades. His background in business journalism before joining Aviation Week includes stints at Reuters, the American Banker daily banking newspaper and as business news editor at the Milwaukee Journal and the Cincinnati Enquirer.

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