Was The World’s Smallest Aeroplane Stored In A Tiny Hangar?

In the world of aircraft hangar buildings, the focus has been on creating bigger, more flexible and versatile buildings that can be put up more easily than ever before.

The goal is to have kit buildings that can, with basic tools, be put together quickly to create temporary structures robust enough to keep aircraft safe. 

Improved technology and design principles, particularly when it comes to robust roof stability, mean that these buildings can be bigger without requiring the columns that limit the wingspan of aeroplanes that can practically be used within them.

At the same time as these evolutions, however, an exceptionally unusual race took place which saw ever larger hangars be filled with ever smaller aircraft.

A Tale Of Two Mechanics

The history of tiny planes revolves around two mechanics, who focused on doing the kinds of impossible designs that other aeroplane designers had not even considered, and whose paths crossed as friends before they became remarkably passionate rivals.

The first of these was Ray Stits, a former US Army Air Force mechanic during the Second World War, who used the experience he had developed in the army to develop homebuilt aircraft.

Whilst his greatest legacy is in developing Poly-Fiber, a building material that made the process of building aircraft less dangerous, he also became fixated on an unusual but very important question in a miniaturised world; how small can you build an aeroplane?

According to Mr Stits himself, the idea came when he was repairing and modifying aircraft in 1948 at an airfield in Battle Creek, Michigan. He asked a question about making a plane with a ten-foot, ten-inch wingspan and fuselage, wondering if that would be small enough to make it the world’s smallest aeroplane.

The immediate and stunned reaction from his fellow aviation enthusiasts and experts that it was impossible spurred him into action, leading to the creation of the Sky Baby in 1952 after testing the concept with the Junior and Playboy before that.

To test the aircraft, he hired Robert H Starr, a military pilot who had broken the sound barrier with the F-86 Sabrejet during his time with the California Air National Guard.

Mr Starr not only helped to prove that the Sky Baby could actually fly but also provided some insight into its unusual flight characteristics as well as its full capabilities.

According to Mr Starr’s test flights on 26th May 1952, the Sky Baby could reach 185 mph and its landing speed was 80 mph, both of which are remarkable for an aeroplane barely any longer or wider than its pilot.

Mr Stits claimed the record and retired the plane in November 1952, something that frustrated Mr Starr, who claimed that he deserved a lot more credit than he received for making the world’s smallest plane.

To get revenge, he created the Bumble Bee I, which successfully flew and took Sky Baby’s record.

Mr Stits’ son, Don Stits, took it upon himself to make an even smaller aircraft, the Baby Bird, a plane with a wingspan of just six feet, and three inches and still holds the record for the smallest monoplane in the world.

Mr Starr responded with the Bumble Bee II, the smallest biplane in the world and the smallest aircraft, with a wingspan of just five feet, six inches, shorter than the average height of a person living in the United States.

Unfortunately, it crashed on its third flight, and nobody has attempted to make a smaller aircraft since.

Given that space is such a premium when it comes to owning and piloting aircraft, there is a chance that tiny planes such as Bumble Bee and Sky Baby will be the inspiration for the future of aviation.