10 Wooden Airplanes You Can Buy Or Build

At the outset of aviation, wood was a logical material for aircraft construction. Lightweight alloys were still anything but common, but wood was widely available and used for everything from bridge timbers and railway coaches to furniture and buildings. Technically, some metal structures did take flight as rigid airship frames before the Wright brothers even started building gliders. But for the first several generations of aircraft, wood was a critical design component. From the early pioneers through the Golden Age air racers, wood allowed for strong structures with a smooth finish that didn't require rivets disrupting the airflow. It could be used in a number of methods. The earliest flying machines were often a skeleton of wooden frames, with a fabric skin stretched over it. As machines gained speed and a need for strength, plywood skins formed over ribs, stringers and bulkheads made for a strong structure without a lot of weight. Even as aluminum became a popular building material for aircraft, wooden spars, such as on Piper Cubs until early 1946, persisted as a light and affordable component. Many of the lighter Cubs sport spars of spruce or fir. Wood spars continued in new-production Champs, Citabrias and Decathlons until the 1990s.

Even today, wood persists in plenty of homebuilt designs and even a few certified aircraft in current production. Wood is light, strong and, unlike metal, it doesn't have a "memory." It either breaks, or it doesn't. Metal, on the other hand, can be observed failing as you bend a paperclip back and forth several times. With each bend, it deforms more easily, and when it finally does break, it does so with less force than originally needed to bend it. Wood is far from a perfect material, though. Termites aren't so much a threat as rot---moisture is the enemy. Having a mechanic who is knowledgeable and comfortable with wood structures is key. Let's take a quick look at 10 types, some old and some new, to see what a broad variety of wooden wonders might decorate an eclectic aviator's logbook.

Designed in 1934, the WACO YMF would normally belong in the antique section at a fly-in, but after a redesign and production reboot in 1986 by WACO Aircraft Corporation, the design soldiers on, with a few nods to modern advances in aviation. Powered by a 300-horsepower Jacobs radial engine, the WACO YMF features doublewide seating in the front cockpit, allowing the design to make money hopping rides to those wishing to get a taste of the barnstorming life of an era long gone. Variations available include options such as an MT constant-speed propeller, amphibious floats and a full-up Garmin IFR suite. The fuselage of the modern YMF is a tubular steel frame, but the wings remain wooden. Used copies built from the 1990s onward are available, advertised starting at $150,000 and up to $400,000 for nearly new examples with all the bells and whistles.

WACO YMF-5

Height: 8 ft 5 in

Wing Span: 30 ft

Length: 23 ft 1 in

Max T/O Weight: 2,650 lb

Empty Weight: 1,155 lb

Fuel Capacity: 48 gal lb

Useful Load: 965 lb

Max Range: 400 nm

Service Ceiling: 14,800 ft

Maximum Speed: 110 kts

Normal Cruise: 98 kts

Powerplant: Jacobs R-755

If you had to look twice because you thought you saw a Cessna 182 pictured in a listing of wooden aircraft, don't feel bad. It caught us off guard as well. The Aeropilot Legend 600 mimics the lines of Cessna's venerable Skylane, scaled down to a two-seat LSA. In fact, this design looks more like a Cessna product than Cessna's own LSA, the discontinued model 162 Skycatcher.

Despite the L600's similarity in appearance to the Cessna models, the wing is a wooden structure---contributing to the aircraft's empty weight that's only a couple pounds heavier than many Piper J-3 Cubs. Couple that light weight with a 100-hp Rotax out front, and you wind up with some impressive performance numbers. You've got Cub landing speeds, 172 cruise speeds and Skylane climb rates. The LSA weight constraints, however, mean you'll be right near gross with full tanks and two people aboard. Pack lightly or manage your fuel accordingly, though, and you'll have a practical LSA with conventional looks.

Aeropilot Legend 600

Height: 8.53 ft

Wing Span: 29.72 ft

Length: 22.97 ft

Wing Area: 113.45 sq ft

Empty Weight: 727.5 lb

Gross Weight: 1320 lb

Cruise Speed, 75 Percent power: 113 kts

Maximum Level Speed: 122 kts

Range: 702 nm (including reserve)

Climb Rate: 1376 ft/min at sea level

There are few names going farther back in aviation with designs you can still fly today than Bellanca. The Super Viking was the culmination of a long line of designs attributed to Giuseppe Bellanca, who designed and built a long line of pioneering aircraft, including the first enclosed cabin monoplane, as well as the WB-2, which Bert Acosta and Clarence Chamberlin used to set the world's longest distance record for unrefueled flight in April 1927. The WB-2, incidentally, was Charles Lindbergh's first choice of design for his Spirit of St. Louis. The Bellanca lineage of airplanes peaked with the Viking series, a four-seat, 300-horsepower design. The plywood and mahogany wings gave excellent performance and light weight. Debbie Gary, a trailblazing airshow performer, flew routines in the Super Viking for years, highlighting its handling and maneuverability.

Bellanca Super Viking

Seats: 4

Height: 7 ft 4 in

Wing Span: 34 ft 2 in

Length: 26 ft 4 in

Wing Area: 161.5 sq ft

Airfoil: Bellanca B

Empty Weight: 2,217 lb

Max T/O weight: 3,325 lb

Range: 802 nm (max. fuel)

Service Ceiling: 17,000 ft

Rate Of Climb: 1,170 ft/min

Takeoff Run To 50 ft (15 m): 1,420 ft

Landing Run From 50 ft (15 m): 1,340 ft

Cruise Speed: 163 kts (TAS, 75% power, max. cruise)

Stall Speed: 61 kts (wheels and flaps down, CAS)

Never Exceed Speed: 196 kts (IAS)

Powerplant: Continental IO-520-K 300 hp

When Curtis Pitts' scrappy biplane took to the air in 1945, it was a vastly different machine from the aerobatic competitors and airshow performers of today. With two ailerons fitted to flat-bottom wings and a C-85 on the nose, it flew well, but in a familiar pattern of bigger-faster-more powerful, the Pitts grew over the years. In 1962, Pitts offered S-1C plans for those who wanted a Pitts Special of their very own, and that design is still popular---if not especially competitive---today. Welded steel structures make up the fuselage and tailfeathers, but the wings are a work of wooden art. With a mixture of stick-built ribs and plywood sheeting, the basic structure is stronger than the average aerobatic pilot could ever need. Various models of the Pitts have been stretched to two seats, fitted with four- and six-cylinder Lycoming engines, and the Pitts Model 12 packs a massive Russian Vedeneyev M-14 radial engine that produces 375 horsepower stock but has been tuned up past 450 horsepower by some operators.

Pitts' ground handling is the stuff of Saturday-morning hangar flying gold at your local FBO, but most of the horror tales come from poorly built or repaired aircraft, or from pilots who have never actually flown the design. Pitts owners report the ground handling as plenty manageable. "It only does what you tell it to do," is a common refrain. That said, there are plenty of instructors offering Pitts-specific instruction, and a couple grand spent with a CFI is a lot cheaper than a prop strike inspection and rebuilding a wingtip.

Plans for the S-1C and S-1S are still available through Steen Aero Lab, and flying copies are always for sale, ranging from sub-$20,000 to $40,000. The S-1T, a factory-built and certified bird, demands a premium, as do two-seat S-2 designs.

Pitts S-1S

Height: 6 ft 3 in

Wing Span, Upper: 17 ft 4 in

Length: 15 ft 6 in

Empty Weight: 720 lb

Gross Weight: 1,150 lb

Vne: 176 kts

Stall Speed: 56 kts

Maximum Rate Of Climb At Sea Level: 2,677 ft/min

Service Ceiling: 22,300 ft

Range With Maximum Fuel, No Reserve: 315 mi

In 1957, the Experimental Aircraft Association announced a contest for designers to enter easy-to-build, affordable aircraft. The rules were vague and took a while to firm up, but one of the qualifiers was that the designs had to feature folding wings---allowing owners to keep their airplanes at home, tucked into a barn, garage or shed. This contest truly embodied the "plane in every garage" notion that tantalized and eluded general aviation throughout the postwar years.

Peter Bowers entered his design, the Fly Baby 1-A, a wooden affair that used simple construction techniques, readily available components that came with every stock J-3 wasting away on tie downs (different times, remember) and, per the contest, the wings tucked away after about 15 minutes' work. Bowers touted that the average person had the skills required to build his airplane. His prototype, N500F, bore the number of plans he hoped to sell.

Instead, it was closer to the number of Fly Babies that actually flew. He sold 10 times as many plans.

Several variations followed. A second wing could be constructed and added with some struts to form a biplane. A second cockpit was added here and there, and no lack of these machines took wing in military colors. An open-cockpit flying machine where you really could hear the wind through the wires---this really was the perfect plane for a generation of pilots to get airborne purely for fun.

Despite its sporty appearance, it really wasn't aerobatic. Peter Bowers did loop and roll his prototype, famously so on the cover of a magazine, even. But a quarter of accidents involving the Fly Baby were structural failures of the wing. The Fly Baby's unofficial homepage includes information about the PB-100, a revamp of the design to make it safer and easier to build. Using the original series published in Sport Aviation (and still available to EAA Members online) that served as a step-by-step guide of how to build a Fly Baby, the PB100 project gives enhanced instructions and even such conveniences as a CAD file that allows a metal shop to cut out all the metal pieces needed for construction. A motivated builder could have one airborne in a couple hundred hours of construction time.

Once flying, they really are a delightful diversion from life on the ground. Without radios or any real avionics, the Fly Baby draws your eyes out of the cockpit and forces you to smile. If you've got a little space to spare in your workshop, one of these would be easy enough to put together.

There are usually a couple projects for sale online for a few thousand dollars. It's rare to see a flying one bring much more than $15,000, so they really can be an affordable way to get into the air. Worried there's no second seat to take a friend flying? Rent a 172 when he or she actually shows up at the airport. Until then, it's all you.

Bowers Fly Baby

Crew: One pilot

Wing Span: 28 ft

Length: 18 ft 10 in

Wing Area: 120 sq ft

Empty Weight: 605 lb

Maximum Takeoff Weight: 924 lb

Range: 300 mi at 8,000 ft

Rate Of Climb: 1,100 ft/min

Powerplant: 1 × Continental C-85, 85 hp

Maximum Speed: 104 kts

Cruise Speed: 96 kts

Stall Speed: 39 kts

What's that? Another wooden-winged, single-seat taildragger that begins as a pile of raw materials? There are a few similarities to be noted between a Fly Baby and a Cassutt, but that's about where they end. The Cassutt is a classic Formula One race design that has circled the pylons at air races for more than 60 years. Originally designed and flown by TWA Captain Tom Cassutt in 1951, it had its plans become available that same year. Over time, the wing evolved from a constant-chord easy-building affair to a tapered design that keeps the type competitive with more modern counterparts. In its stock configuration, you'll want to be neither tall nor wide to fit into its 16-inch wide cockpit, with the spar passing through about where most folks' knees would rather be.

A Continental O-200 engine with a turned-down prop puts out enough power to push the Cassutt to a 200-knot top speed. Some quote numbers as high as 220 kts, but that's either creative writing, a lot of detail work, or some combination of the two. Much like the Fly Baby, projects can be had for a couple thousand bucks, and flying copies should be easy enough to find for less than $20k. If you've always wanted to fly fast and turn left around the pylons at Reno, you can do it for a lot cheaper than the warbird guys and still have a lot of fun with a Cassutt.

Owning an aircraft isn't always about practicality, but it's understandable if you can't justify a single-seat homebuilt where there's not even a roof to keep the rain off your head when you park. How about a fast two-seater with a more common setup? The GP-4 is an all-wood, two-seat traveling machine that looks like it's going 200 knots sitting on the ramp---and tops that speed once you tuck the wheels into the wheel wells.

The GP-4, designed by George Pereira, is not for the faint of heart. It's a plans-built design that is going to take 4,000 hours or more to build. That's two years of working 9-5 in your shop to get this bird airborne. But once it is completed, you'd be looking at a 200+ knot, 1,000-mile-legged traveling machine. Since it is powered by a Lycoming IO-360, you'd have no problem with engine parts availability if something broke while you were on the road. And after 4,000 hours of hands-on experience during construction, it's a safe bet you could patch up anything on the airframe side.

The Beech Staggerwing, one of the first corporate aircraft, offered pilots the chance to travel in style and comfort while covering ground in a hurry. The model 17 took wing in late 1932, and it absolutely walked away from its nearest competition, cabin class Waco biplanes in cruise. Engines over the years ranged from 300 to 710 hp, but the Model D17S with a 450-hp Pratt & Whitney 985 may be the perfect combination of performance, reliability and maintainability. The fuselage of the model 17 is a steel tube frame with wooden bulkheads and stringers to give it a distinctive shape, and the wings are all wood.

Staggerwings were built to go places, and they do that well. They're heavy enough not to wander off when you glance down at a chart while still offering easy control with just a few fingers on the control wheel. The place where the Staggerwing will get your attention is on the ground, though. S-turns in many light taildraggers will seem optional after your first time in a Staggerwing, where the world on the other side of the nose ceases to exist without an aggressive S-turn. And for those who've mainly flown lighter tailwheel aircraft, prepare for a wakeup call the first time the tail starts to swing on landing rollout. The mass of this airplane will get your attention, as arresting any heading swing will take a little more work than in a Cub or Citabria. It's not a hard airplane to fly, but knowing that you could scratch a very expensive aircraft with a moment's inattention will keep you on your toes.

There are 202 Beechcraft Staggerwings on the FAA registry, and with 127 examples, the D17S is by far the most popular. Two are currently listed for sale online, both hovering just shy of $400,000. A third project is listed at $50,000, but by the time you hired a restorer to finish the work properly, you'd be no less invested.

Beech Staggerwing D17S

Seats: 4

Height: 8 ft

Wing Span: 32 ft

Length: 26 ft 10 in

Empty Weight: 2,540 lb

Loaded Weight: 4,250 lb

Range: 582 nm

Service Ceiling: 25,000 ft

Rate Of Climb: 1,500 ft/min

Maximum Speed: 185 kts

Cruise Speed: 175 kts

Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-1 450 hp

Before the idea of Flying Ubers, or even flying cars, there was a notion post-World War II that there would be an airplane in every garage. There were many approaches to this attitude, from Molt Taylor's literal interpretation in his Aerocar to Al Mooney's M-18 Mite, a single-seat pocket rocket that hoped to take the aviation world by storm.

The Mite, known as the "Texas Messerschmitt," pushed 85 kts on 65 horsepower. Incorporating retractable landing gear and the now-iconic Mooney vertical stabilizer that gives the illusion of a forward sweep, it housed the pilot beneath a sliding bubble canopy. It's the perfect everyman's airplane, provided the pilot is not wide, tall or heavy. With a 260-pound useful load, many pilots would have to experience the Mite as a glider. A recent listing on Barnstormers.com touts a 19-gallon fuel capacity between the main and aux tanks, an option that would yield impressive range but only for a rather svelte aviator---at 138 pounds, you'd be over gross on full tanks.

Mooney Mite

Crew: One pilot

Height: 6 ft 2-1⁄2 in

Wingspan: 26 ft 10 in

Length: 18 ft

Maximum Takeoff Weight: 780 lb

Empty Weight: 520 lb

Useful Load: 260 lb

Range: 440 statute mi

Service ceiling: 19,400 ft

Rate of climb: 1090 ft/min

Maximum Speed: 120 kts

Cruise Speed: 109 kts

Stall Speed: 37 kts

Powerplant: Continental A65, 65 hp

For three decades, Daniel Haligoin and Montaine Mallet, a husband and wife airshow team, wowed crowds as "The French Connection," performing an almost impossibly tight formation routine that was as much ballet as aerobatics. Their mount, the CAP 10B, became an icon of the show circuit, and even the most seasoned of aviators would stop to watch their snap rolls on takeoff.

Powered by an AEIO-360 engine, the CAP 10B was far from the fire-breathing monsters that headline airshows today. And even though they were made of wood, the airplanes weren't feather-light, either. These airplanes put on a spectacular show through careful energy management---a balance of kinetic and dynamic energy. Speeds and G-limits are largely unremarkable by modern standards, but few pilots who have flown one will speak ill of the design. Instead, expect a smile and a gleam in their eye as anyone who's been at the controls tells you of the fun they had dancing about the heavens in this specimen of a flying machine. The CAP 10 was derived from the Piel Super Emeraude homebuilt, and it continued to be refined into later designs of single-seat aerobatic aircraft, culminating with the CAP 230 series.

Avions-Mudry CAP 10B

Crew: 2

Height: 8 ft 4 in

Wing Span: 26 ft 5 in

Length: 23 ft 6 in

Wing Area: 116.8 sq ft

Maximum Takeoff Weight: 1,676 lb

Empty Weight: 1,190 lb

Fuel Capacity: 19 U.S. gal

Propellers: 2-bladed Hoffmann fixed pitch wooden propeller

Range: 750 miles

Service Ceiling: 16,000 ft

G-Limits: +6 -4.5

Rate Of Climb: 1,200 ft/min max at sea level

Maximum Speed: 148 kts

Cruise Speed: 139 kts

Stall Speed: 54 kts clean; 46 kts dirty

Never Exceed Speed: 182 kts

Powerplant: 1 × Lycoming AEIO-360-B2F, 180 hp

Want more interesting planes? Here are Cool Planes That Never Made The Cut.