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Continued, page three. Oshkosh, 2003:
A "Bathtub" Aeronca. Now, that's aviatin'.
This is a Ryan STA Special, built in 1940. It belongs to Bill Rose of Rose packing in Chicago, but Randall Webb of Connecticut was flying it at Oshkosh. The gorgeous airplane was built as a sport trainer. It was designed in the early 30s. This one was built for the Dutch Indonesian military. It went to Indonesia on floats in 1940. Then it went to Australia before coming back to the US. The plane was torn down in 1971 for reconstruction. Webb says he test flew it for the first time since reconstruction just two days before bringing it to Oshkosh. I think he likes it; he told me, "You ask any pilot on this field and if they don't think this is the classiest airplane here, something's wrong with 'em." Alllright..
The pilot of this one might argue with Randall a little. This is a replica of Howard Hughes' famous racing plane. That gentleman and I told each other we could fly it. Then we laughed like loons.
This KitFox Series 5 was built by Judd Parker of Los Angeles. In his garage.
Judd started working on it in 1995 and finished it in February, 2002. What's it like to build something like that and then fly it for the first time? "The first minute was sheer terror," he said, "and then it was 29 minutes of 'Oh, my God, I have to land.'"
It lands pretty well..at about 35 mph, so Judd can get in and out of some really small places. The plane's used to it; it lives in his garage and goes to the airport on a trailer. It took three days for Judd and his wife to fly it from California, cruising at about 110 to 120 knots. How about that paint job?
I have no idea what that is, but I think it came in on the Air Bus "Beluga." Looks like it'd float, alright.
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