Friday 3 August 2012

Homegrown Single Seat Homebuilt Aircraft of New Zealand (7) - Barber Snark HA 1

There have been a surprising number of homegrown single seat homebuilt aircraft of New Zealand, mostly registered in the microlight category, and here I offer another one.

Bill Barber of Dacre in Southland has built several of his Barber Snark two seaters, but he started off with the Snark HA 1 which was a single seater which looked somewhat like a Taylor Mini Imp.

Barber Snark HA 1 ZK-FOU (c/n MAANZ 409) was first registered to Bill Barber on 11/8/87.  It was built of Kevlar foam sandwich construction with carbon fibre spars and full flaperons.  It had a Rotax 503 engine driving a 3 bladed propellor through an 8 foot long driveshaft.  Bill told me that he flew the Snark HA 1 twice, for 2 short hops, and on reflection he thinks it was a good aircraft.  However, development problems caused him to go on to design and build his 2 seater Snarks.

This view shows the unusual tail configuration.  ZK-FOU was withdrawn and cancelled on 26/7/95.  It is currently stored on a trailer at Mandeville.

Thanks very much to Bill Barber for the photos.


No comments:

Post a Comment