The Collins Dipper was an American

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 ...

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

that was designed and produced by Collins Aero of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and first flown in 1982. The aircraft was supplied in the form of plans for amateur construction. Only one was built and none remain registered.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 140. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The Dipper was a conversion of a Cessna 150, adding a

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

hull and nose to the Cessna land plane. Development was protracted and started in 1964, leading to a first flight in 1982. The Dipper featured a

strut-braced In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

high-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 ...

, a two-seats-in-

side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

enclosed cockpit with doors, retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

and a single engine in

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

mounted above the cabin on struts. The aircraft is made from

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 ...

and fiberglass, retaining the Cessna 150's wing and lift struts. The span wing employs a

NACA 2412 The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets ...

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. ...

, mounts flaps and has a wing area of . The standard engine used was the Lycoming O-360 powerplant. The aircraft nose wheel retracted forward and the main landing gear retracted upwards into the rear window space. The Dipper had a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for pilot, passengers and baggage is . The manufacturer estimated the conversion time from the plans as 1000 hours.

Operational history

In 1998 the company reported that 13 sets of plans had been sold and one aircraft was flying. By December 2013 no examples remained registered in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration 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 ...

Specifications (Dipper)

References

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External links

Photo of the Collins Dipper
Dipper 1980s United States sport aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft High-wing aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Flying boats Amphibious aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1982