08/31/2011. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Jesse Anglin of Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA, designed a number of prize winning aircraft: the J-3 Kitten won Best New Design at the 1983 Sun 'n Fun Fly-in at Lakeland, Florida, and at the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the J-4 Sportster won a Grand Champion Prize in 1984 and the J-6 Karatoo won the Outstanding New Design award in 1985.
In 1986 he designed the single-seat Spacewalker that reproduced the classic configuration (low-wing, open-cockpit tail dragger) of the Ryan monoplanes of the late 1930s but constructed of modern materials and powered by modern engines. The aircraft had fabric covered wooden wings and a welded chrome-molybdenum steel tube fuselage and wire-braced tail unit, also fabric covered. Powered by a 65 hp Continential flat-four engine the aircraft first flew in 1986, registered N107JA (c/n 107) .
The aircraft was exhibited at the 1986 edition of the EAA event at Oskosh, following the response there, Anglin founded Country Air to market drawings, component parts and kits to amateur constructors. Later these became available from Anglin Engineering at Rutherfordton, North Carolina, thereafter from Warner Aerocraft of Seminole, Florida, and presently from Serenity Aviation based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia.
In 1990 Anglin designed the tandem two-seat Spacewalker II, using similar methods of construction. The prototype (pictured here) was manufactured by Maxey Hester of Montezuma, Iowa. Powered by a 65 hp Teledyne Continental engine, the prototype was first flown in 1990, registered N516HM.
More recently a real 'retro' version was developed by Martin Hone of Australia, when he flew his Spacewalker II-RR for the first time in 2009, fitted with a Rotec 3600 radial engine.
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Spacewalker |
Spacewalker II |