The Bowers Fly Baby is a

homebuilt Homebuilt machines are machines built outside of specialised workshops or factories. This can include different things such as kit cars or homebuilt computers, but normally it pertains to homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or ...

, single-seat, open- cockpit, wood and fabric low-wing

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 con ...

that was designed by famed

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 territori ...

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 p ...

historian, Peter M. Bowers."Bowers Fly Baby 1A"

Museum of Flight The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum in the Seattle metropolitan area. It is located at the southern end of King County International Airport (Boeing Field) in the city of Tukwila, immediately south of Seattle. ...

Seattle, Washington 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 region ...

, retrieved June 7, 2022

Development

The prototype Fly Baby first flew in 1962, becoming the winner of the

Experimental Aircraft Association The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. Since its inception, it has grown internationally with over 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapt ...

's 1962 design competition.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 135-136. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa Monica CA, 1977. Variants include a biplane version called the Bowers Bi-Baby or Fly Baby 1-B, a floatplane version, and several dual-cockpit designs by various builders. Bowers also designed a side-by-side two-seat version he called Namu II, but few examples have been built. Over 500 Fly Babies have been completed to date, with scores still flying worldwide and an active network of builders and owners. It is built from plans and was designed to be constructed in a garage using only basic hand tools, by a person of average "home handyman" skill in 1962. The plans consist of over one hundred pages of typewritten instructions and dimensioned drawings. After Bowers' death in 2003 the plans were unavailable for a time, but starting in 2007 they were back on the market, sold by the Bowers family.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 97. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485XTacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 103. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design

To win the 1962 Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Design Contest, Bowers designed the small plane to meet EAA's criteria for a low-cost, folding-wing airplane that was easy to build and fly, and could be towed or trailered. The Fly Baby was designed to be a very simple aircraft. For example, the

fuel gauge In automotive and aerospace engineering, a fuel gauge is an instrument used to indicate the amount of fuel in a fuel tank. In electrical engineering, the term is used for ICs determining the current State of Charge of accumulators. Motor vehi ...

is a stiff wire attached to a float poking up through the gas cap (a common application in the 1930s and 1940s, as seen on Piper and Aeronca light aircraft). The structure is of aircraft-grade spruce and plywood (Bowers did not advocate skimping on the quality of structural wood), covered with doped

aircraft fabric Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures. The de Havilland Mosquito is an example of this technique, as are ...

. Aileron controls are push-tube,

elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They a ...

controls are a combination of push-tube and cable, the

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

is cable-controlled. Although it is not intended for intense

aerobatics Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glide ...

, the Fly Baby can reportedly be flown through spins, simple loops, and barrel rolls. The Fly Baby's wings fold up against the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

enabling it to be stored in a single-car garage or a car trailer. The wings can be folded or unfolded in about 15 minutes. The airplane was designed to be stored in a garage and towed to the airport on its own gear. In practice, most owners use a trailer or keep their Fly Baby hangared at an airport. The

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

is fixed and unsprung. The main landing gear struts are made of laminated wood with a steel axle. The only shock absorption comes from the tires themselves. (Some have been modified from, the original design, to use shock-absorbing, spring-steel landing gear legs.) Hydraulic wheel brakes are usually fitted. The aircraft was designed to be powered by a 65-horsepower (48 kW)

Continental A-65 The Continental O-170 engine is the collective military designation for a family of small aircraft engines, known under the company designation of A50, A65, A75 and A80. The line was designed and built by Continental Motors commencing in the 194 ...

piston engine taken from a

Piper Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is P ...

. Engines of up to 100 horsepower (75 kW) have been fitted, including the

Continental O-200 The Continental C90 and O-200 are a family of air-cooled, horizontally opposed, four-cylinder, direct-drive aircraft engines of 201 in³ (3.29 L) displacement, producing between 90 and 100 horsepower (67 and 75 kW).''Federal Aviation Admini ...

and converted Corvair automotive conversions. While the instrumentation installed is up to the builder, most Fly Babys are equipped for

visual flight rules In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...

(VFR) only. An electrical system is optional; many Fly Baby owners hand-prop the engine for starting, and use a handheld radio. Some of the components used, such as the fuel tank and engine, were designed to be taken from the Piper Cub, which were cheap and plentiful in 1962. Even today, the total cost of construction can be under

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

10,000.

Variants

;Bowers Bi-Baby :A Fly Baby can be converted to a biplane Bi-Baby in less than one hour by adding the struts and upper wing to the existing aircraft (if the fittings were built in) or it can be built as a biplane version from the start.

Regulations

United States

In the

United States of America 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 territo ...

the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

categorizes the Fly Baby as an Experimental Amateur-Built aircraft. It also fits the FAA's specifications for a

Light Sport Aircraft A light-sport aircraft (LSA), or light sport aircraft, is a fairly new category of small, lightweight aircraft that are simple to fly. LSAs tend to be heavier and more sophisticated than ultralight (aka "microlight") aircraft, but LSA restrictio ...

and can be flown in the US by pilots holding a Recreational Pilot or

Sport Pilot certificate Pilot certification in the United States is typically required for an individual to act as a pilot-in-command of an aircraft. It is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USD ...

Canada

In Canada the Fly Baby may be built as an

amateur-built 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 ...

or as a

basic ultra-light aeroplane The Canadian Aviation Regulations define two types of ultralight aircraft: basic ultra-light aeroplane (BULA), and advanced ultra-light aeroplane (AULA). Definition Regulation of ultra-light aircraft in Canada is covered by the Canadian A ...

. It may be flown with an Ultra-light Pilot Permit or higher aeroplane licence.

Specifications (Fly Baby)

References

External links

{{commons category, Bowers Fly Baby
Photo of the prototype Fly Baby in flightDigitized Bowers Fly Baby Model 1A Builders Manual
at The Museum of Flight Homebuilt aircraft 1960s United States civil utility aircraft Light-sport aircraft Low-wing aircraft Bowers aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1962