SA-2A Sky Baby
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SA-2A Sky Baby
The Stits SA-2A Sky Baby was a homebuilt aircraft designed for the challenge of claiming the title of "The World's Smallest". Design and development The Sky Baby was designed by Ray Stits and built with Robert H. Starr as a follow-on to the Stits Junior midget racer. The aircraft is an enclosed single engine negative staggered cantilevered biplane with conventional landing gear. The fuselage is constructed of welded steel tubing with aircraft fabric covering. The upper wings have flaps, the lower wings have ailerons. Most aircraft use a flat firewall between the engine and pilot's feet, the Skybaby is configured with the pilot sitting with the engine close to the lap, and rudder pedals located under the oil sump toward the front of the cowling. The powerplant was sourced from an ERCO Ercoupe, modified with water injection to produce . Operational history The aircraft was test flown by Robert H. Starr on 26 May 1952 at Palm Springs, California. The short coupled aircraft ...
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Homebuilt Aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenneth: ''Choosing Your Homebuilt - the one you will finish and fly! Second Edition'', pp. 39–52. Butterfield Press, 1993. Peter M Bowers: ''Guide to Homebuilts - Ninth Edition''. TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit PA, 1984. Overview In the United States, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, homebuilt aircraft may be licensed Experimental under FAA or similar local regulations. With some limitations, the builder(s) of the aircraft must have done it for their own education and recreation rather than for profit. In the U.S., the primary builder can also apply for a repairman's certificate for that airframe. The repairman's certificate allows the holder to perform and sign off on most of the maintenance, repairs, and inspections themsel ...
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Conventional Landing Gear
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 133. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. From the Ground Up, 27th edition, page 11 The term taildragger is also used, although some argue it should apply only to those aircraft with a tailskid rather than a wheel. The term "conventional" persists for historical reasons, but all modern jet aircraft and most modern propeller aircraft use tricycle gear. History In early aircraft, a tailskid made of metal or wood was used to support the tail on the ground. In most modern aircraft with conventional landing gear, a small articulated wheel assembly is attached to the rearmost part of the airframe in place of the skid. This wheel may be steered by the pilot through a connection to the rudder pedals, allowing the rudd ...
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Biplanes With Negative Stagger
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane, it produces more drag than a monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and higher speeds made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s. Biplanes offer several advantages over conventional cantilever monoplane designs: they permit lighter wing structures, low wing loading and smaller span for a given wing area. However, interference between the airflow over each wing increases drag substantially, and biplanes generally need extensive bracing, which causes additional drag. Biplanes are distinguished from tandem wing arrangements, where the wings are placed forward and aft, instead of above and below. The term is also o ...
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Starr Bumble Bee II
The Starr Bumble Bee II was an experimental aircraft designed and built specifically to acquire the title of “The World’s Smallest Airplane”. Design and development The Bumble Bee II was designed, and built by Robert H. Starr in Phoenix, Arizona with the intent of breaking the record for world's smallest biplane. Robert Starr had been deeply involved with the development of aircraft holding previous “smallest airplane” titles, including his own Bumble Bee I, which temporarily lost the record of world's smallest aircraft to the Baby Bird designed by Donald Stits, that is until Bumble Bee II flew and regained the Guinness record. The design of the Bumble Bee II is similar to Starr's original Bumble Bee I except the Bumble Bee II was smaller and lighter Both aircraft were biplanes. Both aircraft had negative staggered, cantilevered wings and conventional (tail dragger) landing gears. The fuselage of the Bumble Bee II was constructed of welded steel tubing with sheet metal ...
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Stits DS-1
The Stits DS-1 Baby Bird is a homebuilt aircraft built to achieve a "world's smallest" status. The Baby Bird is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Smallest Airplane in the World.” as of 1984. The title was later defined as "world's smallest monoplane" to acknowledge Robert H. Starr's Bumble Bee II as the world's smallest biplane. Development The DS-1 is a single-engine, single-seat highwing aircraft. Development started in 1980 to beat Ray Stits's record for World's smallest aircraft, the Stits SA-2A Sky Baby The Stits SA-2A Sky Baby was a homebuilt aircraft designed for the challenge of claiming the title of "The World's Smallest". Design and development The Sky Baby was designed by Ray Stits and built with Robert H. Starr as a follow-on to the Sti ... flown by Robert H. Starr. The fuselage is welded steel tubing with fabric covering. The wing is all-wood construction. Operational history Thirty-four flights took place in 1984 with United States Navy pi ...
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Aircraft Engine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many small UAVs have used electric motors. Manufacturing industry In commercial aviation the major Western manufacturers of turbofan engines are Pratt & Whitney (a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies), General Electric, Rolls-Royce, and CFM International (a joint venture of Safran Aircraft Engines and General Electric). Russian manufacturers include the United Engine Corporation, Aviadvigatel and Klimov. Aeroengine Corporation of China was formed in 2016 with the merger of several smaller companies. The largest manufacturer of turboprop engines for general aviation is Pratt & Whitney. General Electric announced in 2015 entrance into the market. Development history * 1848: John Stringfellow made a steam engine for a 10-foot wingspan mod ...
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Four-stroke
A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either direction. The four separate strokes are termed: #Intake: Also known as induction or suction. This stroke of the piston begins at top dead center (T.D.C.) and ends at bottom dead center (B.D.C.). In this stroke the intake valve must be in the open position while the piston pulls an air-fuel mixture into the cylinder by producing vacuum pressure into the cylinder through its downward motion. The piston is moving down as air is being sucked in by the downward motion against the piston. #Compression: This stroke begins at B.D.C, or just at the end of the suction stroke, and ends at T.D.C. In this stroke the piston compresses the air-fuel mixture in preparation for ignition during the power stroke (below). Both the intake and exhaust valves are close ...
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Continental C85
The Continental O-190 (Company designations C75 and C85) is a series of engines made by Continental Motors beginning in the 1940s. Of flat-four configuration, the engines produced 75 hp (56 kW) or 85 hp (63 kW) respectively.Teledyne Continental Motors: ''Continental Aircraft Engine Operator's Manual'', pages 4-5. Teledyne Continental Motors, FAA Approved December 1980. Continental Form No. X30012 The two variants shared the same bore, stroke and compression ratio. The C85 produced ten extra horsepower by virtue of having a maximum permissible rpm of 2575 versus the 2275 of the C75. The C75 was in production from 1943 to 1952 and the C85 from 1944 to 1970. Variants C75 ;C75-8: ;C75-8: ;C75-8F: ;C75-8FH: ;C75-8FHJ: ;C75-8FJ: ;C75-8J: ;C75-12: ;C75-12F: ;C75-12FH: ;C75-12FHJ: ;C75-12FJ: ;C75-12J: ;C75-12B: ;C75-12BF: ;C75-12BFH: ;C75-15: ;C75-15F: C85 ;C85-8: ;C85-8F: ;C85-8FHJ: ;C85-8FJ: ;C85-8J: ;C85-12: ;C85-12F: ;C85-12FH: ;C85-12FHJ: ;C85-12FJ: ;C85-12J ...
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Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat. The city had a population of 66,816 in 2020, making it the ninth-largest city in Wisconsin. It is also adjacent to the Town of Oshkosh. History Oshkosh was named for Menominee Chief Oshkosh, whose name meant "claw" (cf. Ojibwe ''oshkanzh'', "the claw"). Although the fur trade attracted the first European settlers to the area as early as 1818, it never became a major player in the fur trade. The 1820s mining boom in southwest Wisconsin along with the opening of the Erie Canal shifted commercial activity away from the Fox River Valley and Green Bay. Soon after 1830, much of the trade moved west, as there had been over-trapping in the region. Following the publicity caused by the Black Hawk War in 1832, there was increased interest in settling Wisconsin by whites from the East Coast, especially New York, Indiana, and Virginia, and by 1836 the cities of Milwaukee, Madison, Janesville, Beloi ...
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EAA Airventure Museum
The EAA Aviation Museum, formerly the EAA AirVenture Museum (or Air Adventure Museum), is a museum dedicated to the preservation and display of historic and experimental aircraft as well as antiques, classics, and warbirds. The museum is located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States, adjacent to Wittman Regional Airport, home of the museum's sponsoring organization, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), and the organization's EAA AirVenture Oshkosh event (the world's biggest fly-in and airshow) that takes place in late July/early August. With over 200 aircraft, indoors and outdoors, and other exhibits and activities (including occasional aircraft rides nearby), the AirVenture Museum is a key tourist attraction in Oshkosh and is a center of activity throughout the AirVenture fly-in and airshow each summer. The museum is open year-round with the exception of a few holidays. History EAA founder Paul Poberezny proposed the idea of the EAA Air Museum-Air Education center ...
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VanGrunsven RV-1
The RV-1 is a Stits Playboy that was constructed with modifications by Richard VanGrunsven. The aircraft was the first of a series of Van's aircraft that became the most popular homebuilt aircraft produced. Design and development The first RV-1 was a Stits SA-3A completed on 3 October 1965. The Playboy is a single-place, strut-braced In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ..., low-wing aircraft with conventional landing gear. The aircraft engine was upgraded from the normally-fitted powerplant to a Lycoming O-290G. The resulting aircraft had good performance, but a high landing speed. On 16 August 1965, the aircraft was registered as an RV-1. Modifications included a new aluminum wing with flaps, Horner wing tips, and a bubble canopy. The fuselage uses welded ...
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