The delta airplane in the pic I posted is a Delt-Air 250. Only one was built. It was designed by a guy with no formal aviation background. He was also the builder. He did a fair amount of research for the day (1961, when risk was higher and more accepted in society as a whole) and believed it good to go. He only earned his private pilot's license a month before the fatal test flight and of course had no experience in anything close to this airplane. He also made the first flight in a 20 KT direct crosswind. Bottom line: a pilot with maybe 50 hours TT tried to test fly an untried airplane with an unconventional delta wing and pusher prop configuration. To make a long story short, he got it off the ground, then lost control and crashed.
I read about more senior EAAers decrying the lack of members building original designs today, and I understand their point... if you look through issues of Sport Aviation from the 50s-mid-70s you note that about half the homebuilts seem to be original one-ff designs. The fact is, however, that we're MUCH safer today, even if the vast majority of us are flying designs made from kits... designs from professional designers with components fabricated by craftsmen.
The original article on the Delt-Air is an interesting read, if for no other reason that it's a frank discussion of the subject, something EAA would never print today in the carefully PR crafted publications of the 21st century where accidents are glossed over lest anyone get any bad ideas (take the two-paragraph hidden article in Sport Aviation about the three fatalities at last year's Airventure as an example). I have the original article and can send it in PDF; if anyone wants it drop me a note off the board.
TM
Topic: Name That ???? (Read 788354 times)
