Ray Stits

Last updated

Ray Stits
Born(1921-06-20)June 20, 1921
DiedJune 8, 2015(2015-06-08) (aged 93)
Indian Hills, California
Citizenship United States
Occupation Aircraft mechanic, pilot, aircraft designer
SpouseEdith Stits
ChildrenDavid Stits and Don Stits

Raymond M. Stits (20 June 1921 - 8 June 2015) was an American inventor, homebuilt aircraft designer, aircraft mechanic and pilot. He designed the Stits SA-2A Sky Baby, which was the world's smallest aircraft in 1952, developed the Poly-Fiber aircraft fabric covering system and was the founder of Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 1. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

David Gustafson, a Flabob Airport historian, wrote of Stits, "few people outside of the Poberezny family had as much influence on the early home built aircraft movement as Ray Stits." [1]

Life

Stits Sky Baby Sky Baby (23633904488).jpg
Stits Sky Baby
Stitts SA-3A Playboy in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum StittsSA-3APlayboyCF-RAD.jpg
Stitts SA-3A Playboy in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Stits SA-3B Two-Seat Playboy Stits SA-3B.jpg
Stits SA-3B Two-Seat Playboy
Stits SA-5 Flut-R-Bug Stits SA6B Flutrbug LX-PUR Lux Findel 27.07.65 edited-3.jpg
Stits SA-5 Flut-R-Bug
Stits SA-7 Sky-Coupe Empire State Aerosciences Museum - Glenville, New York (8158375346).jpg
Stits SA-7 Sky-Coupe

Stits served as an aircraft mechanic in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. He served in the mainland US, with distinction. [3]

In 1953, Stits convinced Experimental Aircraft Association founder Paul Poberezny that local chapters would benefit the homebuit aircraft movement and founded Chapter 1 at Flabob Airport in Rubidoux, California. [1] [2]

As the result of a flash-burn accident while burning some scrap aircraft fabric, he designed the Stits Aircraft Covering System, also called Poly-Fiber, which allowed the aircraft industry to stop using the highly flammable combination of Grade "A" cotton fabric treated with nitrate dope and instead move to polyurethane finishes on polyester fabric. In 1992, Stits sold the company to Jon Goldenbaum, but it remains based at Flabob Airport. [1] [2] [4] [5]

Stits and his wife, Edith, had two sons, David and Don. In the 1970s and 1980s they lived in Jurupa Hills, in the Jurupa Valley, California, before moving to the nearby Indian Hills. At that home, Stits built a helicopter pad on the highest hill in the area. [1]

Stits' son, David Stits, served in the 82nd Airborne Division in the Vietnam War and later died in an aircraft accident. [1]

Stits was awarded both a Federal Aviation Administration Master Mechanic award and a Master Pilot Award each for 50 years of accident-free operations. [1]

At age 90 Stits was still flying and owned a Cessna 162 Skycatcher light-sport aircraft. He died at age 93 in Indian Hills, California. [1]

Aircraft designs

Stits' first aircraft design was the Stits SA-1A Junior. The aircraft was the world's smallest monoplane at the time and was designed as the result of a discussion at Kellogg Field in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1948, about whether it would be possible to design an airplane with a wingspan smaller than Steve Wittman's racer's 13 ft (4.0 m) span. Other pilots claimed it was not possible, so Stits designed the Junior, with a wingspan of 8.83 ft (2.7 m). That aircraft was damaged in an off-airport landing and later scrapped. He went on to design the biplane SA-2A Sky Baby, with a wingspan of 7.17 ft (2.2 m). The Sky Baby flew 25 hours before being retired to be displayed in a series of museums. It is now in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. [1] [2]

Stits received a good deal of interest in his SA-1A and SA-2A designs from pilots interested in building copies of them, but he felt the aircraft were too demanding to fly, with their high wing loadings and fast approach speeds. Instead in 1953, he designed the much more conventional Stits Playboy, as an aircraft that low-experience pilots could safely fly. The Playboy was later developed by Richard VanGrunsven into the VanGrunsven RV-1 which was the first in the highly successful Van's Aircraft line. [1]

Stits went on to design a total of 15 aircraft and become a source of both plans and aircraft parts for the designs. [1]

His Stits SA-7 Sky-Coupe was an attempt to design a larger, high-wing aircraft, but it resulted in an aircraft Stits was not pleased with and it was not commercially successful. [2]

The Stits SA-11A Playmate was designed in response to an EAA challenge to create a trailerable aircraft. [2]

Aircraft

Stits SA-11A Playmate StitsSA-11A.jpg
Stits SA-11A Playmate

Summary of aircraft designed by Stits:

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stits Playboy</span> Type of aircraft

The Stits SA-3A Playboy is a single seat, strut-braced low-wing monoplane that was designed by Ray Stits for amateur construction. The aircraft was designed and the prototype was completed in a three-month period during 1952. The design went on to become one of the most influential in the post-war boom in aircraft homebuilding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stits-Besler Executive</span> Type of aircraft

The Stits-Besler Executive is a three place homebuilt aircraft designed by Ray Stits, as the Stits SA-4A Executive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stits SA-7 Sky-Coupe</span> Type of aircraft

The Stits SA-7 Skycoupe is a two-seat, side-by-side seating, high wing homebuilt aircraft designed by Ray Stits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poberezny P-5 Pober Sport</span> Type of aircraft

The P-5 Pober Sport is an early low-wing homebuilt aircraft designed by Experimental Aircraft Association founder Paul Poberezny. The one example built was flown across the country to every EAA chapter at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquart MA-5 Charger</span> Type of aircraft

The Marquart MA-5 Charger is a homebuilt two place biplane.

The Coser-Oonk CO-2 "Our Lady" is a single-place, open-cockpit, low-winged monoplane homebuilt aircraft design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stits SA-11A Playmate</span> Type of aircraft

The Stits SA-11A Playmate is a homebuilt aircraft design that features a rapid wing-folding mechanism for trailering or storage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stits SA-5 Flut-R-Bug</span> Type of aircraft

The Stits SA-5 Flut-R-Bug is a homebuilt aircraft designed by Ray Stits.

Richard E. "Dick" VanGrunsven is an American aircraft designer and kit plane manufacturer. The number of VanGrunsven-designed homebuilt aircraft produced each year in North America exceeds the combined production of all commercial general aviation companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VanGrunsven RV-1</span> Type of aircraft

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stits SA-2A Sky Baby</span> American homebuilt aircraft

The Stits SA-2A Sky Baby was a homebuilt aircraft designed for the challenge of claiming the title of "The World's Smallest".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stits DS-1</span> Type of aircraft

The Stits DS-1 Baby Bird is a homebuilt aircraft built to achieve a "world's smallest" status. The Baby Bird is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Smallest Airplane in the World.” as of 1984. The title was later defined as "world's smallest monoplane" to acknowledge Robert H. Starr's Bumble Bee II as the world's smallest biplane.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Sad News - Prolific aircraft designer, homebuilt aircraft pioneer Ray Stits dies". fraseraerotechnologycompany.com. 10 June 2015. Archived from the original on 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Laboda, Amy (20 May 2016). "Ray Stits Remembered". Kitplanes. Archived from the original on 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  3. 1 2 Fortier, Rénald (11 September 2017). "One small step for a man, one giant leap for homebuilding, Part 3". Ingenium . Archived from the original on 7 July 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  4. ↑ Aircraft Spruce and Specialty (2021). "Ceconite". Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  5. ↑ Aircraft Spruce and Specialty (2021). "Covering Material - Poly-Fiber". Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
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