With all the kits available, why did Art Zemon choose a 50-year-old design? It’s a question he gets often, usually followed by “Are you nuts?” The BD-4 “is not pretty,” said the 59-year-old computer engineer based at the St. Charles County Airport west of St. Louis, Missouri. “It looks like the box the airplane came […]
“For the time and money invested, there is no other airplane of this type that I would rather have,” said Paul Cox of Fort Myers, Florida. Without context, his opinion leans toward the homebuilder hyperbole side of the dial. The Experimental/Amateur-Built design he’s talking about is the Mustang II. He’s scratch-built two of them from […]
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always liked to make things, and I thought an airplane would be the ultimate project,” said Les Krumel of Moriarty, New Mexico, a mechanical engineer who recently retired as a civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force who worked on aerospace projects. That understatement defines his humble personality. […]
What single-engine airplane, almost as big as a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, designed by Al Mooney, certified by Lockheed, built in South America, Italy and South Africa, is now powered by a 383-cubic-inch Chevy V-8? Originally designated the L-402, Lockheed built two prototypes of the tricycle-gear utility airplane that first flew in 1959. Deciding it […]
A series of transitions defines every pilot’s life. For Bill Anton of Satanta, Kansas, retiring after 35 years as an ag banker coincided with maturing flying desires, “from cross-country and aerobatics to fun flying out in the boondocks.” Now 72, “I’m thinking of how many more years of good flying I might have left,” he […]
Anyone who has seen the Cygnet SF-2A will remember the two-seat, side-by-side taildragger because it looks like no other. Contrary to the high- or low-wing choices favored by designers of Amateur-Built and certified aircraft, the Cygnet extends its wings from the shoulder like outstretched arms. Even more unusual, the wingtips are 14 inches ahead of […]
“Unusual” is a subjective, time-sensitive evaluation inspired by something that is rare or exceptional, something not common or usual. This certainly describes the maroon two-seat biplane tied down in front of Homebuilt Headquarters at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019. With its negatively staggered wings, it was equally exceptional when its designer, 72-year-old Miles Westfall, flew the […]
