The Propeller under the Bed: A Personal History of Homebuilt Aircraft

by Eileen A. Bjorkman

On July 25, 2010, Arnold Ebneter flew across the country in a plane he designed and built himself, setting an aviation world record for aircraft of its class. He was eighty-two at the time and the flight represented the culmination of a dream he'd cultivated since his childhood in the 1930s.

Eileen Bjorkman ― herself a pilot and aeronautical engineer ― frames her father's journey from teenage airplane enthusiast to Air Force pilot and Boeing engineer in the context of the rise, near extermination, and ongoing interest in homebuilt aircraft in the United States. She gives us a glimpse into life growing up in a "flying family" with two pilots for parents, a family plane named Charlie, and quite literally, a propeller under her parents' bed.

From early airplane designs serialized in magazines to the annual Oshkosh Fly-in where you can see experimental aircraft on display, Bjorkman offers a personal take on the history of building something in your garage that you can actually (and legally) fly as well as how the homebuilt aircraft movement has contributed to aviation and innovation in America.

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Genres: Aviation, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2017

About the author

Eileen Bjorkman loves all things aviation, with a particular passion for military and homebuilt aircraft. She is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with 700+ hours of flying time as a flight test engineer in 25 different types of military aircraft, primarily the F-4, F-16, C-130, and C-141. As a civilian pilot, she holds an Airline Transport Pilot rating and is a Certificated Flight Instructor with more than 2,000 hours of flying time. She owns an aerobatic airplane, a Decathlon. When she's not writing or researching, she can usually be found doing some sort of outside activity, especially anything involving an airplane!

In addition to her books, Eileen has had articles published in Air & Space/Smithsonian, Aviation History, Portland, Equinox: Poetry and Prose, Sport Aviation, the Everett Daily Herald, and many technical journals.

She has both MS and BS degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio, and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Washington in Seattle. She also has a PhD in Systems Engineering from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Reviews

[Beth Chapple]

I enjoyed all the local insights, and the book details the homebuilt aircraft phenomenon very well. Recommended especially for nonpilots, because it explains aviation concepts well.

[Brian Bohenek]

Great book covering the history of the authors father and his work to design and build his own aircraft to set a world record. It also does a good job covering the world of "home built" aviation.

[Guido]

Meh