Nelson Aircraft

Nelson Aircraft Corporation

Industry	Aerospace
Founded	1945
Headquarters	San Fernando, California, United States
Key people	Ted Nelson William Hawley Bowlus
Products	Motor gliders Aero engines

The Nelson Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1945 by sailplane pilot Ted Nelson and sailplane designer William Hawley Bowlus in San Fernando, California.^[1]

Bowlus and Nelson formed the Nelson Aircraft Corporation to build a two-seat, motor glider version of the popular Bowlus BA-100 Baby Albatross. The designers nicknamed this design the Bumblebee but they sold the powered glider under the official moniker, Dragonfly.^[2]

The first Nelson-Bowlus glider was the Nelson Bumblebee with a pod-and-boom fuselage two-seat powered sailplane [NX1955]. The Bumblebee in 1945-46 was built with a Righter O-45 16-hp 4-cylinder engine. Nelson Aircraft then developed their own 25-28 hp 4-cylinder, two-stroke H-44 and H-49 engines. These engines were used for a limited production version of the BB-1 Bumblebee called the BB-1 Dragonfly.^[1]

Designs

The team kept the basic Baby Albatross design but made major changes by widening the cockpit and adding side-by-side seating with flight controls for each occupant. Further, there were improvements in the tricycle landing gear, created a steerable nose landing gear, added vertical stabilizers mounted on the ends of the horizontal stabilizer, and a handy hinged canopy. Ease of operation was with a handle to pull-start the engine; this was added inside the cockpit.

In studying the fuselage design of the Baby Albatross the aft section of the fuselage pod was an ideal place to install a pusher engine and propeller. A small engine was needed to fix in this location, so Nelson and Bowlus selected a Ryder four-cylinder, two-cycle power plant. Tests were made which determined the engine was under-powered producing about 16 horsepower, not enough for adequate flight. With this conclusion, the men decided to build a suitable engine from scratch. Their new motor generated 25 horsepower, just enough power for takeoff and a slow climb.^[2]

Aircraft

Summary of aircraft built by Nelson Aircraft

Model name	First flight	Number built	Type
Nelson Bumblebee	1946	1	Motor glider
Nelson Dragonfly	1947	7	Motor glider
Nelson Hummingbird	1953	7	Motor glider

Engines

Summary of engines built by Nelson Aircraft

Model name	Introduced	Type
Nelson H-44	1945	4-cylinder, 2-stroke, 25 hp at 3,900 rpm[3]
Nelson H-49	1949	4-cylinder, 2-stroke, 28 hp at 4,000 rpm[3]
Nelson H-59	1953	4-cylinder; 2-stroke, 40 hp at 4,000 rpm[4]
Nelson H-63	1958	4-cylinder; 2-stroke; 43 hp at 4,000 rpm[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Aeroengine: Nelson Aircraft
2. ^ ^{a b} NASM Nelson BB-1 Dragonfly (Long Description)
3. ^ ^{a b} Federal Aviation Administration (April 1947). "Aircraft Type Certificate Data Sheet GTC19". http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgMakeModel.nsf/0/8db86e618c946c038525673c00665b17/$FILE/ATTRYH3Y/GTC19.pdf. Retrieved 10 March 2011. 
4. ^ Popular Rotocraft Association: Igor Bensen
5. ^ Federal Aviation Administration (February 1996). "Aircraft Type Certificate Data Sheet 4E1". http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgMakeModel.nsf/0/721452f52e1c7b0c85256784006b187f/$FILE/ATTVMM9O/4e1.pdf. Retrieved 13 March 2011.