| In the twenties, the first aircraft plans offered for | | | | air. There was also much litigation during this time and |
| sale to the amateur market were for the Baby Ace | | | | many small aircraft companies went out of business |
| airplane. There was limited interest for building planes | | | | or consolidated. Today the range is wide when it |
| at home during the 30s depression years. The 40s | | | | comes to the home-built aircraft industry, from a |
| were all about the war, and countless thousands | | | | tube of aircraft blueprints for a few hundred dollars, |
| became pilots during World War II. When these pilots | | | | to the high-end Lancair Propjet kit that cruises at 425 |
| came home after the war, many of them wanted to | | | | mph at 24,000 feet. Home-builders of aircraft have a |
| have an airplane of their own to fly. In the fifties | | | | wide selection of designs, construction techniques |
| amateur aircraft building gained much popularity. In | | | | and material, to build their dream aircraft. |
| 1953 the EAA or Experimental Aircraft Association | | | | Home-built aircraft can be built from plans where the |
| was founded. | | | | builder builds every part from scratch. From plans and |
| Up until 1950, home-built aircraft were either wood or | | | | some ready made components to speed things up, |
| steel tube and cloth. Without the regulatory | | | | or kit-built. Quick build kits where many subassemblies |
| restriction the aircraft manufacturers had to work | | | | are ready made or partially assembled to speed up |
| under, home-built design and construction techniques | | | | the building process are available for many of the kits. |
| could be more innovative. Burt Rutan Introduced the | | | | Having a couple of thousand rivet holes drilled and |
| canard design, and pioneered the use of building with | | | | aligned properly can make a quick build kit tempting |
| composite materials. Kit planes were introduced with | | | | for some. It's a tradeoff between time and money. |
| metal construction by Richard Van Grunsven with his | | | | There tends to be two types of experimental |
| RV series. | | | | aircraft builders, the flyer-builder and the builder-flyer. |
| The 70s and 80s were boom times for ultralights, | | | | More on these two types in my next article. |
| and thousands built inexpensive kits and took to the | | | | |