Spratt Controlwing 107. A flying boat sold as a kit plane. Its wings functioned as the control surfaces of the aircraft, hence the name. (Ca. 1967)
Posted by NinetiethPercentile@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 2 comments
NinetiethPercentile@reddit (OP)
The Spratt Controlwing 107 was an unorthodox controlwing flying boat designed in the United States in the 1960s and marketed for home building in the 1970s.
The aircraft featured a flat, speedboat-like hull with a square bow and with tailfins blended into each side. The fins were angled to form a butterfly tail and included no moving surfaces. The wings were mounted on struts, parasol-style, and also contained no moving surfaces. Rather, each of the two wings could pivot independently to vary their angle of attack. The pilot and a single passenger sat side by side in an open cockpit with a converted marine outboard motor mounted behind them that drove a pusher propeller. The flight controls consisted of a helicopter-style collective that varied the angle of attack of both wings simultaneously, and a control wheel that varied their angles of attack in relation to one another. The hull was constructed from polyurethane foam and covered with fiberglass, and the wing panels were fiberglass throughout.
Designer George Spratt claimed that the Model 107 could not stall or spin, and that it was 75% less affected by turbulence than a conventional airplane design. With friend Elliot Dalland, Spratt began construction of the prototype (registered N2236) in 1962. During the 1970s, Spratt marketed plans for the Model 107 to homebuilders.
Far-Bike9927@reddit
I just went and looked at one of the last known Spratt 107 flying boats this morning in Norfolk VA. It’s the actual one in the photo that is posted above, was originally built by Bill Wolfe and purchased from Bill by Dennis McGee around 2002. Dennis wanted this flying boat to be donated to an airplane museum. He passed away last year but his estate is tied up in legal proceedings so his family isn’t able to make it available for donation or possible sale to anyone interested yet.
Bill Wolfe maintained the George Spratt website for many years. It can be viewed on the WayBack machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20260000000000*/http://georgespratt.org/?
The estate did let me borrow a big briefcase of documentation Bill had collected over the years as well as several vhs tapes of it, a CD with whose contents are yet to be determined, and the full set of blueprint sized plans Bill used to build his flying boat.
I’m having all of Bill’s collection digitized and all the files will be available for download at the Facebook Spratt group page:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1KDHbteeZN/?mibextid=wwXIfr