This box contains numerous aircraft of unknown parentage.
This is just one of them.
Not a brilliant photo, but the only one I have remaining. I sent a better one to the Wings Magazine at the time, but it has disappeared into the ether.I believe it is a amateur built, own design, man powered flying machine which I noticed in one of the Wigram hangars on 06-01-1987. From memory I seem to recall that it was marked as the "Boffin Coffin".
Does anybody know any more about it.
Who built it ?
Did it fly ?
Where is it now ? etc.
I don't know anything about it. But, looking at your photo, it looks too heavy to be a man-powered aircraft. It does resemble a Bede BD-5 or BD-5J (see http://www.bedecorp.com/)
ReplyDeleteMorning frankv.
ReplyDeleteOh, It is much larger than the BD-5.
I would guess the wing span about 15m.
I've been thinking (dangerous activity) that I still have the negatives from my pre digital days. So if I rat around I may just find them for a later posting.
Watch this space.
Yes, this is the "Boffin Coffin". Designed and built by Don Walther of Christchurch. Don had been a pilot in WWII, then a farmer. He'd designed the aeroplane in the early 1970s, though construction didn't commence until he'd retired, in the early 1980s. Assembled and tested at RNZAF Wigram in 1987. I think it'd made one or two flights when towed behind a car - possibly with Stephen Preest as pilot - but none under pedal power.
ReplyDeleteThe aircraft had a tandem wing configuration, a pusher propeller, powered undercarriage and a prone-position pilot. Probably its most notable feature was the forward wings, which had both anhedral and forward sweep. (The Christchurch "Press" newspaper, at the time, ran a front page article about this project, and described those wings as looking like the outstretched arms of Superman.)
Cheers, Paul