The Bowers Namu II was a single-engine, two-seat, recreational aircraft, designed and flown in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the late 1970s and marketed for homebuilding. It was designed by famed aircraft designer and

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

historian Peter Bowers.

Development

The aircraft was a follow-on project to the designer's earlier

Bowers Fly Baby The Bowers Fly Baby is a homebuilt, single-seat, open- cockpit, wood and fabric low-wing monoplane that was designed by famed United States aircraft designer and Boeing historian, Peter M. Bowers.cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

monoplane 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 ...

with an inverted

gull wing The gull wing is an aircraft wing configuration, known also as ''Pulaski wings'', with a prominent bend in the wing inner section towards the wing root. Its name is derived from the seabirds which it resembles. Numerous aircraft have incorporat ...

and fixed

tailwheel undercarriage Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynami ...

, designed to carry two persons (the Fly Baby was a single-seat aircraft). The Namu II accommodated a passenger seated beside the pilot. The aircraft's somewhat portly lines provided the "Namu II" name, after

Namu Namu or NAMU may refer to: *The North American Monetary Union *Namu, British Columbia, a town in Canada *Namu Atoll, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean *Namu doll, a type of Pullip doll *Yang Erche Namu, a Chinese singer and writer of Mosuo ethnicity ...

, the

orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only Extant taxon, extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black ...

captive in Bower's home city of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington State. Sales were disappointing, and out of the few plan sets sold, only four examples were constructed, one of which sported an orca paint job.

Operational history

In November 2022, there were no Namus remaining registered in the United States with the

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Specifications

References

* * {{cite book , last= Taylor , first= Michael J. H. , title=Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation , year=1989 , publisher=Studio Editions , location=London , pages=194 * "Pete Bowers" ''Wind in the Wires'' Vol XIV No 10
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1970s United States sport aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Namu II Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Inverted gull-wing aircraft