The Barber Snark is a two-seater kit-plane, designed and built in New Zealand by Bill Barber. It first flew in late 1987. Only some five aircraft have been built.

Design and development

The Snark is a tricycle aircraft of composite construction. Its glider-like cockpit accommodates a pilot and passenger in tandem, the passenger sitting behind and higher than the pilot. The centrally mounted

shoulder-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

lies behind the pilot, who has unrestricted visibility. The

Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...

engine is sited behind the cockpit, driving a pusher propeller. Wing control surfaces on the third Snark were flaperons, while the fourth aircraft had conventional

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement arou ...

s and flaps. Above the propeller, and aft of the cockpit is a slender boom to the

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

comprising a

T-tail A T-tail is an empennage configuration in which the tailplane is mounted to the top of the fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs from the standard configuration in which the tailplane i ...

with a high-mounted tailplane. The Snark's tandem layout, its small frontal area, and its low wetted area mean that the aircraft has excellent performance, being able to cruise at over 110 knots despite having an engine output of only 80 bhp.

Reception

The Snark received positive reviews in the UK and NZ press. Former RNZAF Squadron Leader and aviation journalist Tim Cripps wrote in Pilot magazine, "this is the most enjoyable of the many aircraft I have flown - and that includes the Hunter". Similarly, David Laing, a former WWII pilot who built the fourth Snark, declared it to be "one of the nicest planes I've ever flown".

Specifications (Barber Snark)

References

External links

{{Commons category, Barber Snark
Barber Snark
Homebuilt aircraft Shoulder-wing aircraft Aircraft manufactured in New Zealand Single-engined pusher aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1987