Reading Ken Scott’s very sound advice to would-be homebuilders in Flying‘s May issue got me thinking about my own experiences, and how things have changed since I got involved in homebuilding.
I started thinking about building an airplane around 1963. At that time there were no prefab kits on the market and only a limited number of plans. Most homebuilts were sport biplanes or small wood or tube-and-fabric cruisers like the Wittman Tailwind. Like most young men I was entranced by speed and fighter-like looks and flying qualities, and so I leaned toward something like the Long/Bushby Midget Mustang, a handsome single-seat taildragger of all-metal construction. But although plans for such airplanes could be bought, I don’t recall ever considering them; I wanted to design an airplane myself. This was a project for which my only qualification — at the time I was on a two-year hiatus from college, where I majored in English — was apparently boundless self-confidence. I knew nothing about engineering, stress analysis, calculus, aerodynamics, materials, construction methods or aircraft systems.
