Beecraft Wee Bee

The Wee Bee was designed by William "Bill" Chana, Kenneth Coward, and Karl Montijo. They described it as big enough to carry a man and small enough to be carried by a man.[1]

It was an all-metal cantilever mid-wing monoplane powered by a Kiekhaefer O-45-35 flat-twin piston engine.[1] It had a conventional tail and fixed tricycle landing gear.[1] The unusual feature was that the aircraft lacked any internal room for a pilot who had to fly it lying prone atop the fuselage.[1][2]

Only a prototype registration NX90840 was built, and the type did not enter production. The prototype was destroyed when the original San Diego Air and Space Museum burned down in 1978.[2] After the fire, a replica was built and is now on display at the new San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park.

Data from [1]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 14 ft 2 in (4.32 m)
• Wingspan: 18 ft 0 in (5.49 m)
• Height: 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m)
• Wing area: 44 sq ft (4.1 m²)
• Empty weight: 210 lb (95 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 410 lb (186 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Kiekhaefer O-45-35 flat-two piston engine, 30 hp (22 kW)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 82 mph (132 km/h, 71 kn)
• Cruise speed: 75 mph (121 km/h, 65 kn)
• Range: 50 mi (80 km, 43 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 10,000 ft (3,000 m)

Notes

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beecraft Wee Bee.

• "Homemade Air Sled Weighs Less Than Pilot" , February 1949, Popular Science rare photos of the WeeBee—i.e. pages 137 to 139