Eagle Aircraft Company is an American

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology indust ...

specializing in

agricultural aircraft An agricultural aircraft is an aircraft that has been built or converted for agricultural use – usually aerial application of pesticides (crop dusting) or fertilizer (aerial topdressing); in these roles they are referred to as "crop duster ...

Aircraft

Eagle was founded in 1977 by Dean Wilson, with the company's base being located at

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ar ...

. Wilson designed the

Eagle Aircraft Eagle The Eagle DW.1 is an American-built single-seat agricultural biplane of the late 1970s. Development The DW.1 was designed by Dean Wilson of the Eagle Aircraft Company of Boise, Idaho and the first example first flew in 1977. The Eagle is a ...

agricultural biplane, which first flew in 1977, powered by a Jacobs R-755-B2 radial engine. The aircraft was fitted with long-span tapering wings, which allowed a payload of and a spraying speed of Further production was sub-contracted to

Bellanca Aircraft AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft design and manufacturing company. Prior to 1983, it was known as the Bellanca Aircraft Company. The company was founded in 1927 by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, although it was preceded by ...

Alexandria, Minnesota Alexandria is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Minnesota, United States. First settled in 1858, it was named after brothers Alexander and William Kinkead from Maryland. The form of the name alludes to Alexandria, Egypt, a center ...

, who built a series of 95 aircraft for Eagle between 1979 and 1983. Over 40 examples remained in agricultural use in 2001.

Eagle Aircraft Flyer Special

In 1981 Eagle Aircraft owner Dean Wilson designed a race car for the

1981 Indianapolis 500 The 65th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 24, 1981. The race is widely considered one of the most controversial races in Indy history. Bobby Unser took the checkered flag as the win ...

. The special, aircraft inspired, design remained unproved due to an engine malfunction. Wilson returned for the

1982 Indianapolis 500 The 66th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 30, 1982. Gordon Johncock, who had previously won the rain-shortened 1973 race, was the winner. Polesitter Rick Mears finished second by a m ...

with driver Ken Hamilton. Hamilton, father of

Davey Hamilton David Jay "Davey" Hamilton (born June 13, 1962 in Nampa, Idaho) is a race car driver who competed in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series and Stadium Super Trucks. He has made 56 series starts and while never winning a race, finished second thr ...

, was a proven and experienced

midget car racing Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on mos ...

and supermodified racing driver. The car, fitted with a

Chevrolet small-block engine Chevrolet small-block engine refers to one of a number of gasoline-powered vehicle engines manufactured by the General Motors company. These include: * The III, IV, V generation of LS-based GM engines. * The I, II generation of non-LS Chevrolet ...

, failed to qualify. The car was subsequently retired. In 2001 the car appeared, fully restored, in the

Hemelgarn Racing Hemelgarn Racing is an American auto racing team owned by Ron Hemelgarn. The team debuted in 1985, and competed in the CART and Indy Racing League ranks until the team originally shut down in 2010. The team returned to competition in 2015, and cur ...

garage.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * {{refend Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States American Championship racing cars