The
Fly Baby++
FAQ
  1. General
    1. Frank, I've read your proposed modifications to Peter Bower's design.  Are you a loon?
    2. Who the heck do you think you are to make such modifications?
    3. Why not choose a different design instead of hacking up the Fly Baby?
    4. Why do you call it the Fly Baby++?
  2. Documentation
    1. Do you have any technical drawings showing the structural changes you are going to do?
    2. Your three view drawings are lacking things. Like where is your exhaust system?



Yes, probably.  Its really a question for somebody else to answer.  Read the rest of this FAQ and you can probably draw your own conclusion.

Well, as a former network design engineer, who else would be wacko enough?

Seriously, I have no formal background in aircraft design.  I am self-taught (still learning, really) when it comes to this.  A lot of the "design" stuff I am doing I am really just stealing from elsewhere.  I am planning on hiring an honest mechanical engineer to do some stress analysis of my changes.  I am also planning on doing a lot of testing to destruction on the critical parts of the plane.  Expensive, yes, but its my butt that's on the line.

On the practical side of things, my other plane is a Bonanza (see  N494B ) that I have pretty much rebuilt (with the help of an A & P).  I like to think I know my way around airplanes.


A fair question.  Unfortunately, I can't find one I like.  What I want is an all wood and fabric, two seat, open cockpit (most of the time) plane.  The only other one that comes close is the Pietenpol, which I find (to be blunt) butt ugly.  The Spacewalker (aka the  Warner Revolution ) would be just great, but it uses a welded steel fuselage.  As does the Spezio Tuholer.  Its an advantage that the Fly Baby has a great set of plans.  Makes the mangling easier.

A jab at the marketing people I used to have to deal with.  Its also much shorter than "Super-macho-tandem-not-quite-fly-baby-deluxe"

Not yet. Like I mentioned most all of this is back of envelope at the moment. That and I don't have a resonable CAD system at the moment. Once I start putting proper drawings togather, I'll post them on the web site for anyone to use. With all of the normal disclaimers (sigh).

Those three view drawings were stolen directly from Dave Munday and hacked up in a drawing program. They really arn't for anything other getting a general view of the astetics of the plane. The exhaust system isn't shown. Neither are the wheel pants, the various canopys. The funny little lump below and behind the rear pit is the duct for the radiator (probably way the wrong size)