Beecraft Wee Bee
| Beecraft Wee Bee | |
|---|---|
| |
| The Wee Bee in flight | |
| Role | Experimental sports ultralight aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Bee Aviation Associates, Inc. |
| First flight | September 26, 1948 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Beecraft Wee Bee was an American ultralight monoplane designed and built by Beecraft.[1] It was described as the world's smallest plane.[1] Later the Starr Bumble Bee II would claim that title.
Development
[edit]The Wee Bee was designed by William "Bill" Chana, Kenneth Coward, Karl Montijo and Jim Wilder, who designed the engine. They described it as big enough to carry a man and small enough to be carried by a man.[1]
It was an all-metal cantilever mid-wing monoplane powered by a Kiekhaefer O-45-35 flat-twin piston engine.[1] It had a conventional tail and fixed tricycle landing gear.[1] The unusual feature was that the aircraft lacked any internal room for a pilot who had to fly it lying prone atop the fuselage.[1][2]
Only a prototype registration NX90840 was built, and the type did not enter production. The prototype was destroyed when the original San Diego Air and Space Museum burned down in 1978.[2] After the fire, a replica was built and is now on display at the new San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park.
Specifications
[edit]
Data from [1]
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 14 ft 2 in (4.32 m)
- Wingspan: 18 ft 0 in (5.49 m)
- Height: 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m)
- Wing area: 44 sq ft (4.1 m2)
- Empty weight: 210 lb (95 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 410 lb (186 kg)
- Powerplant: 1 × Kiekhaefer O-45-35 flat-two piston engine, 30 hp (22 kW)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 82 mph (132 km/h, 71 kn)
- Cruise speed: 75 mph (121 km/h, 65 kn)
- Range: 50 mi (80 km, 43 nmi)
- Service ceiling: 10,000 ft (3,000 m)
References
[edit]- Notes
- Bibliography
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982–1985). Orbis Publishing.
External links
[edit]
- "Homemade Air Sled Weighs Less Than Pilot" , February 1949, Popular Science rare photos of the WeeBee—i.e. pages 137 to 139
- "The Wee Bee: Saga of the World's Smallest Piloted Airplane", June 29, 2017