Creator Of The Evans Volksplane

We regret to say that we just became aware of this so many weeks after the fact... but to many of us who came up through the homebuilt ranks, a true icon of the early-amateur built aircraft movement has passed away and he deserves a proper obit. William "Bud" Evans, who created the Evans Volksplane, passed away in July of natural causes. He was 96 years old.

Evans had been an aeronautical project and design engineer, and created the plans for the kit-built Volksplane back in the 1960's. Plans for the single-place wooden aircraft have been sold to thousands of home-builders around the world. The plans called for the plane to be powered by a modified Volkswagen engine.

Evans was born in Chicago, but moved to La Jolla, California in 1940, where he met and married his wife Margaret. He worked for Convair, Ryan and General Dynamics from 1940 until he retired in the late 1960s, including such project as the B-24 Liberator and the Ryan Fireball, a combination jet and propeller aircraft that was introduced shortly after WWII. He also worked on projects for NASA.

Evans is survived by a son, Peter of Carlsbad; and two grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife in 2003.

FMI: www.evansair.com