Dennis: In the Spring of 1964 our local EAA Chapter (77) had a display at the Swartz Creek High School to promote EAA and home building airplanes. It was in the area where they held shop classes so it worked out well. Along with photos members project and literature about EAA there were items from 4 projects of our members a Benson Gyrocopter, our Fly Baby. a Corben Baby Ace and a Smith Miniplane.
This surplus drone engine is for the Benson Gyrocopter built by Roy Clifford. He flew it as a GyroGlider in 1959 and then converted it o a GyroCopter. There was a nice article on it on page 8 of the
April 1962 issue of Sport Aviation.
Our Fly Baby about 2 months after starting. The pictures of the planes were painted by someone at the High School. They were really well done. My dad still has ours.
Ray Shelby's Baby Ace. He built this in a little house in the country. I don't think anyone lived there it was just his workshop. He eventually finished it and flew it a lot. He even bought a second one about 20 years later because it was for sale so cheap and he liked his that much.
This is the Smith Miniplane being built by Leonard and Gayle Domorski. As I recall they met through the Civil Air Patrol. Bill Dawson who introduced my dad to EAA was also building one. They had made a lot of changes, including the use of 125HP Lycoming GPU (Ground Power Unit) engines. Because of all the changes they called this a D and D Special (Dawson and Domorski). I don't think either plane ever flew.
Loading up to leave.
My dad with the plane, picture, and our big old '58 Chevy Station Wagon. We hauled the engine for the plane back from south of Rantoul, Illinois (Andy Anderson). We then went back and returned with a Cub fuselage for Gene Tanner. I rode in the back between the fuselage tubes for about 8 hours, lucky no one hit us. The Cub was finally finished a few years ago. Some projects just take a long time.
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