Airdrome Aeroplanes is an American aircraft manufacturer, founded by Robert Baslee, that offers a large selection of

kit 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, Kenn ...

for amateur construction. The company is based in

Holden, Missouri Holden is a city in western Johnson County, Missouri, Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,252 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History Holden was laid out in 1857. It was named for Major Nathaniel Holden, a ...

.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page B-14. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook'', page 110. BAI Communications. Downey, Julia: ''1999 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 15, Number 12, December 1998, page 35. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Downey, Julia: ''2008 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 24, Number 12, December 2007, page 38. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2011 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 38-40. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 92. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X The company produces a range of kits specializing in replica aircraft from the pre-

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

''pioneer period'' and from both the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...

and

Allies of World War I The Allies of World War I, Entente Powers, or Allied Powers were a coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Em ...

History

Baslee started in aviation as a teenager, building

model aircraft A model aircraft is a small unmanned aircraft. Many are replicas of real aircraft. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed static, display, or shelf models. Aircraft manufactur ...

. He paid for his hobby by mowing lawns and shoveling snow in

Lee's Summit, Missouri Lee's Summit is a city located within the counties of Jackson (primarily) and Cass in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As of the 2020 census its population was 101,108, making it the sixth-largest city in both ...

. A week before he turned 16, he sold all his models and started work on his

private pilot certificate A private pilot licence (PPL) or, in the United States, a private pilot certificate, is a type of Pilot licensing and certification, pilot licence that allows the holder to act as pilot in command of an aircraft privately (not for remuneration) ...

, completing it at age 17, with money earned working in the fast food industry. He became an apprentice machinist, graduated from high school in 1983 and later completed a degree in mechanical engineering. Baslee constructed a series of homebuilt aircraft, selling each one to pay for the next one. He had aspired to build a

Fokker Triplane The Fokker Dr.I (''Dreidecker'', "triplane" in German), often known simply as the Fokker Triplane, was a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The Dr.I saw widespread service in the spring of 1918. It became famous as the ...

, but found the existing replica plans very complex and slow to construct. He applied his engineering knowledge and created a new design of the DR.1, with a simplified structure and revised

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. ...

, a modified

Clark Y Clark Y is the name of a particular airfoil profile, widely used in general purpose aircraft designs, and much studied in aerodynamics over the years. The profile was designed in 1922 by Virginius E. Clark using thickness distribution of the Germa ...

, to improve handling. The resulting design uses

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

tubing and

pop rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the rivet is placed in a punched o ...

ed gussets, in place of wooden structure. All designs use a two-spar wing design to give redundancy not found in the original First World War designs. Most World War I designs were very tail-heavy and so the balance was adjusted in his designs to give a better

center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the distributed mass sums to zero. Thi ...

. The prototype Triplane was shown at

EAA AirVenture EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (formerly the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In), or just Oshkosh, is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, ...

in 1989, resulting in requests for kits from prospective customers. This in turn resulted in the founding of the company to develop and produce the kits. Each design is completed over about 1000 hours of work and then a prototype is finished. The prototype construction allows the completion of photographs and video of the construction techniques. The company has two employees, including Baslee and ships an average of one kit per week. The company has about 500 aircraft flying. The company is best known for its construction of four full-scale

Nieuport 17 The Nieuport 17 C.1 (or Nieuport XVII C.1 in contemporary sources) was a French sesquiplane fighter designed and manufactured by the Nieuport company during World War I. An improvement over the Nieuport 11, it was a little larger than earlier N ...

aircraft for the 2006 film Flyboys during a period of 52 days. The company also built a Morane L for the 2009 film Amelia.

Aircraft

References: Kitplanes and Airdrome Aeroplanes

References

External links

* {{Airdrome Aeroplanes Aircraft manufacturers of the United States American companies established in 1989 1989 establishments in Missouri Replica aircraft manufacturers