Engineering:Oldfield Baby Great Lakes

From HandWiki
Oldfield Baby Great Lakes
Baby Lakes C-FBKY 02.JPG
Role Sport Aircraft
National origin United States of America
Manufacturer Barney Oldfield Aircraft Company
Designer Andrew Oldfield

The Oldfield Baby Great Lakes is a homebuilt sport biplane. The aircraft has many known names, including the Baby Lakes, Oldfield Baby Lakes, Baby Great Lakes, Super Baby Lakes, Super Baby Great Lakes, and Buddy Baby Lakes[1]

Design and development

The Baby Great Lakes was designed by Barney Oldfield, and originally built by Richard Lane, to be a scaled-down homebuilt derivative of the Great Lakes Sport Trainer.[2]

The Baby Great Lakes is built using 136 ft (41.5 m) of steel tubing for the fuselage with aircraft fabric covering.[3] The wings use spruce spars. The aircraft can accommodate engines ranging from the Continental A-65 to the Volkswagen air-cooled engine.[4]

Operational history

Oldfield Baby Great Lakes

The prototype was not intended to be produced in quantity, but enough plans were requested that the aircraft was marketed as a homebuilt design.[4] The rights to the Baby Great Lakes were acquired by Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co in May 1996.[5]

Variants

Super Baby Lakes
Accommodates engines over 100 hp (75 kW)
Buddy Baby Lakes
Two-place variant

Specifications (Oldfield Baby Great Lakes)

Oldfield Baby Great Lakes with canopy fitted

Data from EAA

General characteristics

  • Crew: one
  • Length: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
  • Wingspan: 16 ft 8 in (5.08 m)
  • Empty weight: 480 lb (218 kg)
  • Gross weight: 850 lb (386 kg)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Continental A-80 Horizontally opposed piston, 80 hp (60 kW)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 117 kn (135 mph, 217 km/h)
  • Cruise speed: 96 kn (110 mph, 180 km/h)
  • Stall speed: 43 kn (50 mph, 80 km/h)
  • Rate of climb: 2,000 ft/min (10 m/s)

See also

References

  1. "Baby Great Lakes Biplane Home". http://www.greatlakesairplane.freeservers.com/babylakes/babylakesclick.htm. Retrieved May 3, 2011. 
  2. Sport Aviation. May 1958. 
  3. Popular Science. June 1970. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Don Dwiggins. Build your own sport plane: with homebuilt aircraft directory. 
  5. Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co (2011). "Baby Great Lakes". http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/kitspages/babygreatlakes.php. Retrieved 3 May 2011.