Pete Bowers Fly Baby
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- Опубліковано 16 лип 2024
- In honor of what would have been #OSH20 at the EAA AirVenture Air Show, we'd like to share a video all about Pete Bowers Fly Baby which resides in The Museum of Flight Restoration Center! Enjoy! #EAAtogether #StillFlying
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Host/Curator: Matthew Burchette
Camera/Editor: Tori Hunt
In 1969, the year I graduated from high school, my father finished his Flybaby Experimental. It took him several years from start to finish, including having to rebuild the tail section because it was in a house fire. When he was done building the fuselage, wings, tail section and finding and building the engine and all the instrumentation, he took it on a trailer to Warrensburg, Missouri where the aviation students at the college wrapped and painted it yellow. Right before Dad went out of remission for Leukemia, he flew his little plane. For all those years of work, I don't think he took it up more than 5 times. It was written up in the local paper. After Dad died, mom sold the plane. My daughter did some research and found that little Flybaby Experimental doing service as a crop-duster in Kansas. Dad loved that little plane and we were proud of him for building it. Now he is doing touch-and-goes in Heaven.
What a nice story to read Diana. Bless you for sharing!
I built a Flybaby after owning 2 of them, and Pete, although old and frail, was a kind and helpful gentleman through the process. One of my very favorite airplanes for sure! What Fun.
Im Ken. I owned N500F for a short time here in Bluffton Indiana. Was a great plane to fly. I amthankful for the previlage to have been able to fly her and idid meet Pete when i bought her. Ken Myers
OOPS. Ken,I just realized that this is YOUR airplane, N500F. COOL.
Thanks ! What a guy 🎉
A million years ago, pre interweb, I wrote Peter Bowers a letter with questions about the Curtiss A12 Shrike, a pre-WW2 Air Corps bomber. He wrote me back with answers.
I have the Fly Baby plans in my locker. Looking forward to the day when the build starts!
I had a chance to work with Pete, when he edited an article I wrote for a Boeing publication. He was a real gentleman and a pleasure to work with.
I was one of those guys who purchased plans to build a Fly Baby way back around 1965, if I remember correctly. I fell in love with the plane because of the ease of construction, the relatively low cost of building the plane, the availability of the engine, the simple but effective cockpit design, and many other things. I was also a model airplane builder and liked the similarity of construction shared by the Fly Baby.
Due to the loss of my job, the arrival of my first child, and the fact that I had to move to another state to obtain a job, I never got to finish my build. What a shama!
My father and I built a Fly Baby, assisted by Bob Lash. If I remember correctly, Bob's Fly Baby was the first built from the popular plans. Dad modified his Fly Baby by cutting the wing span by two feet and installing stall plates. The turtledeck was eliminated and the aircraft was skinned out in aluminum. Although heavier, the airfoil was cleaner and his Fly Baby would outrun Bob's...even though Bob's had a C85 Continental vs. my dad's with an A65. Dad also designed and installed a canopy. Completed in 1966, it was flown until 1970. Dad's health failed and he suffered a fatal series of heart attacks. N612P...it was called the Peel Nighthawk. I eventually sold it...and it was found to have numerous dry rot issues. The motor, instruments and metal fittings, etc. were salvaged and the plane was decommissioned.
“Fly Baby” was used extensively in the application packet in the 1988 “Design A Plane” contest that the Museum of Flight sponsored for high school students!
I have a model of Fly Baby from Balsa USA and will fly it soon!
I would really enjoy a 247 tour.
I enjoy this one as well. Thanks.
I've had a set of Fly Baby plans for over 25 years and was going to build one. But other things occurred and that dream has faded. I still love seeing the MOF's copy plus I still see them at fly-in's and museums around the world.
Would you consider selling/giving away those plans to a prospective young builder?
Ехсelent classik airplaine❤
@museumofflight >>> 👍👍
Uhh... A Cessna 150's wing span is 33 feet. The Fly Baby's is 28 feet. 5 feet shorter, not 2 feet longer.
right in line with the rest of the technical details of the plane presented here ( none). The trouble with EAA is that at swimming in yahoo clubsterism... and is now bent on self glorification of it's past. If the FAA had not choked the life out of grass routes aviation, and the manufacturing industry not priced themselves out of the market..EAA would simply have remained a fringe of home builders. Experimentals are now so expensive, and offer such a poor level of quality for the buck ( check the landing gear on any tri gear experimental if you doubt me) one wonders what it all means. Have some ambrosia salad and wonder bread..and ignore my comments...
I enjoy Matt & the museum, but, he's quite often lax or just outright wrong in regards to facts about the planes he's supposed to "chief curator" of.
Do you guys have any plans to ever get it flying again?
Is his photograph collection online?
The vast majority of it is not online. A few objects have been digitized and can be found here: digitalcollections.museumofflight.org/solr-search?q=bowers. If you are curious about specific subjects, you can always submit a free research request and our archivists will tell you if we have pictures of what you're looking for: www.museumofflight.org/exhibits-and-events/collections-and-research/research-center/.
I still have the thank you notes that Pete sent me with my plans. If you want to know more about the plane, please go to www.bowersflybaby.com