The Pietenpol Aircamper

Update as of October 2007 click here

Engine test results click here

Wing loads and fitting stress analysis click here

The Aircamper was designed by Bernie Pietenpol in 1929 and was powered by a Ford Model A automobile engine. Although an old design, it is still popular with homebuilders today due to it's simple construction and low cost. My Aircamper will be powered by a 1965 Chevy Corvair engine. I started construction on the fuselage during the last week of August, 2002. Here’s some pictures of my Aircamper project.

The Corvair Engine for the Pietenpol Aircamper. (Click on engine for more engine pictures)

Here's the fuselage framed up and sitting on saw horses. The construction was done in the 10 x 23 shop attached to the back of my garage. The wood came from Douglas Fir 2 x 4's. The instrument panels are just cardboard as shown here. It took only about a month to get this far.

Here's the fuselage on the landing gear. I'm using 1980 Yamaha Exciter wheels with cable activated drum brakes.

Here's the rear panel with the GPS on the left, ASI and altimeter in the center, and engine guages to the right. The two holes on the left are for the radio and intercom which I have out at the moment. The vertical wood pieces are cherry.

This shot shows both panels. The front panel just has an ASI and altimeter. The cherry strips on the front panel are on the door to the glove compartment.

This shows the dummy wing center section containing mock-up gas tank.

The tail is together and I'm making the brackets and control horns.

Another view with the tail on.

Here's the actual wing center section that will hold the fuel tank in progress. It's 4 feet wide and the aft 2 feet of the airfoil will fold up and over the top to allow the wing panels to fold backwards for storage. The wings will pivot around the rear spar. The cabane struts will be tilted outward from the fuselage to the attach points at the ends of the center section.

This is the start of the propeller. It is made of maple and the design is per the Alvin Schubert book "How I Make Propellers..

To build the prop I hand carved a single blade template, then borrowed a duplicator from a friend to make the final propeller. The duplicator is a 3-D tracer with a router mounted on a box that rides on rails..

Here you can see the single blade template and the propeller after carving and sanding.

This is a shot looking under the front seat. The "L" shapes are the brake pedals and just behind them are the front seat belt mounts.

The left wing is coming together and the center section is mounted on the cabanes..

The left wing.

To bend the top capstrips for the wing ribs, I made a tube from aluminimum foil, put it on the tea kettle, and stuck in a couple capstrips. The capstrips were steamed for about 10 minutes, then put in a bending jig.

The cabanes on my airplane are tilted outward at the top to reach the brackets at the end of the widened center wing section. The wider center section allows a bigger fuel tank, and will allow the outer wing panels to swing back for storage, similar to the Kitfox and other designs..

This is the rear spar universal joint.  It is the key to the folding wing and allow the wing to pivot 90 degrees around the rear spar.  The front spar has a latching pin to hold the wing in place.

This is the joint folded.  The wing swings back with the tip and leading edge going down slightly.

This is the rear spar attached to the center section.  As you can see, the outer hardware is basically the same ac in the 3 piece wing plans.  The angled, pivot joint on the center section is pretty beefy, especially when you consider that this area takes little of the total load on the wing.

Here is the front spar attached to the center section.  You can see the latch handle sticking down through the bottom of the center section sheeting.  To release the wing you simply pull back on the spring loaded latch.  Hardware on both the center section and outer panel is very similar to the 3 piece wing plans.  I'm currently deciding on several safety options.

Here is a shot of the fully cowled Corvair.  The nose bowl is made from insulation foam and will be fiberglassed.  The blue poster board will be replaced with aluminum.  You can also see the "V" strut arrangement that replaces the parallel struts called for in the original plans.  This was done to allow the wing to fold back.  This super powerful, super streamlined Piet should be wicked fast!

Below is the wiring diagram for the John Deere rectifier as I first tried it. This did not work because the wire connection represented by the "?" in the box was providing constant power to the started solinoid, keeping it engaged. Below is the current wiring setup