Powered by Four Honda Fit Engines With Custom Redrives... And It's Off The Runway In 300 Feet!

OK... not exactly an Affordable Flyer but certainly notable in sport aviation circles... 

there is a 35% scale homebuilt B-29 plying the skies these days... the extraordinary result of builder Tom Hodgson’s long-running development of the third scale replica, powered by 4 Honda Fit engines with a number of specially designed accessories to deliver enough power to get this 50 foot wingspan monster off in just 300 feet... on grass. 

With a power-to-weight ratio of 7.5 pounds per horsepower, the large (50-foot wingspan!) 3000-pound airframe made its first flight late last year, but an errant golf cart got in the way of its first landing and damage was done... leaving Tom to go back, repair the damage and prep for its second flight completed just a few days ago. 

The aircraft leaps off the deck and is hardly underpowered by any stretch of the imagination. The aircraft uses all manner of airplane tech... metal, composite, automotive conversions, and some ingenious redrives and engine brakes (to stop the fixed pitch props in the vent of an engine failure so as to reduce drag). The bird is a two-seat tandem design that was ostensibly built as a test for the engine program Hodgson was developing around the Honda Fit... times four. 

More info as it becomes available... but we sure hope it comes to Oshkosh next year.

FMI: https://youtu.be/pSUvZOb2SQ4?si=JkjLucaQbF8E5ygL