Fly Baby

[Greg Bockelman]

Hey Ron, are there any Fly Baby biplanes actually in existence? I know it was an option and at least one was built but I never see any mention of it.

 

[kyleb]

There was a beautiful one at Oshkosh a couple of years ago. Here's a video:

 

[wanttaja]

Kyle posted the photo of Kurt Gubert's airplane, which is the most recent.

IIRC, there were, supposedly, about a dozen biplanes built. As far as I know, only two were built with both biplane and monoplane wings...Pete's original, and one in England that's now in monoplane configuration flying as a "Boche Baby" (faux Junkers CL1).


Counting Kurt's airplane, I'm aware of four operational biplanes, plus N500F in the Museum of Flight restoration center. There's another one in Canada, in the midst of conversion from a VW engine to a Lycoming.

More info that you'd EVER want to know at:

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/pix/biplane.html

Ron Wanttaja

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Cool. Thanks

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Now, what about the biplane conversion for a J-3 Cub...

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Now, what about the biplane conversion for a J-3 Cub...

LOL. You can do anything you want in the experimental world.

 

[Everskyward]

Didn't @jesse have one for a while? Or am I misremembering the type of airplane.

 

[Dana]

Now, what about the biplane conversion for a J-3 Cub...

Will you settle for an Aeronca Champ?

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Didn't @jesse have one for a while? Or am I misremembering the type of airplane.

Yeah, it was a Fly Baby.

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Will you settle for an Aeronca Champ?

Wonder what the point of that was.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

LOL. You can do anything you want in the experimental world.

There is an STC.

 

[wanttaja]

Didn't @jesse have one for a while? Or am I misremembering the type of airplane.

Sure did....

Ron Wanttaja

 

[Grum.Man]

My buddy has a fly baby biplane. It’s currently taken apart and hanging in his hangar waiting on restoration.

 

[FormerHangie]

Will you settle for an Aeronca Champ?

View attachment 83974

View attachment 83975

That's more a sesquiplane than a biplane.

 

[brcase]

LOL. You can do anything you want in the experimental world.

Now, what about the biplane conversion for a J-3 Cub...

Gene Frank, Father of a guy I used to work for tried putting an extra set of cub wings on a cub. As I recall, he said it was so draggy it would barely get off the ground. They tried it and then promptly took the extra set of wings off of it.

Brian

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Well, you DO need horsepower to overcome the drag. A Cub does not have an over abundance of it.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

STC: https://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_...540c57c7c9285256cc20056a032/$FILE/SA683SW.pdf

 

[Mtns2Skies]

STC: https://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_...540c57c7c9285256cc20056a032/$FILE/SA683SW.pdf

I heard that the extra wing is for a spray system to be used as an ag plane. Not sure if that's true or not.

 

[Dana]

The guy (who built my Hatz) who sent me the pix of the Aeronca biplane said it was done "for airshows." That's all I know about it.