Bowers Namu II

The Bowers Namu II was a single-engine two-seat recreational aircraft designed and flown in the United States in the late 1970s and marketed for homebuilding. It was designed by famed aircraft designer and Boeing historian Peter Bowers.

Development

The aircraft was a follow-on project to the designer's earlier Bowers Fly Baby design, if considerably larger; a low-wing cantilever monoplane with an inverted gull wing and fixed tailwheel undercarriage, designed to carry two persons (the Fly Baby was a single-seat aircraft). The Namu II accommodated a passenger seated beside the pilot. The aircraft's somewhat portly lines provided the "Namu II" name, after Namu, the orca captive in Bower's home city of Seattle, Washington State.

Sales were disappointing, and out of the few plan sets sold, only four examples were constructed, one of which sported an orca paint job.

Specifications

Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1976–77^[1]

General characteristics

• Crew: one pilot
• Capacity: 1 passenger
• Length: 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
• Wingspan: 33 ft 0 in (10.06 m)
• Wing area: 150 ft² (13.9 m²)
• Empty weight: 1,200 lb (544 kg)
• Gross weight: 1,850 lb (839 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Lycoming O-290G air-cooled flat-four engine, 125 hp (93 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 140 mph (225 km/h)
• Cruise speed: 126 mph (203 km/h)
• Range: 500 miles (804 km)
• Service ceiling: 15,000 ft (4,570 m)
• Rate of climb: 950 ft/min (4.8 m/s)

References

• Taylor, John W. R. (1976). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1976–77. London: Jane's Yearbooks. ISBN 0-354-00538-3. 
• Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions. p. 194. 
• "Pete Bowers" Wind in the Wires Vol XIV No 10
• aerofiles.com

See also