Dream Project

I found a fun article in my EAA newsletter this week. This aircraft you see here is at the EAA's museum in Oshkosh, WI. It is a one-of-a-kind made by automobile legend Ettore Bugatti to be a racer, but it never flew. It's too bad. Given that pedigree and just the way it looks, this thing has to be fast! Two EAA members seem to feel the same way and have make it their quest to build a flying copy of it...from scratch.

Scotty Wilson and Gregg Carlson are determined to do it right too. They're using the original plans and talking to anyone who knows anything about the airplane. They wanted to make sure they use the exact same airfoil for the wings. However, since there is no record of what airfoil was used, they're using a painstaking process to measure the entire wing and have a computer tell them what the airfoil is.

The plane used a pair of motors, turning counter-rotating propellers. They probably won't be able to use original engines (there are only 2 left,) so they'll probably use some newer BMW engines. They started construction this year and have a long way to go. It'll definitely be worth the work when they end up with such an amazing plane to fly. We wish them luck in their project and can't wait to watch their plane fly sometime soon!

Picture via the EAA