Smith Miniplane
American biplane
The Smith DSA-1 Miniplane ("Darn Small Aeroplane", "Darned Small Airplane", or "Damn Small Airplane") is a single-seat, single-engine sport aircraft designed in the United States in the 1950s and marketed for home building.
Design
The Miniplane is a conventional single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span braced with N-struts and wires. The Miniplane design has fixed undercarriage with a steerable tailwheel and although designed with an open cockpit, many have been fitted with canopies. The fuselage and the tail fin are of a conventional truss design constructed of welded steel tube and covered in fabric, and the wing spars and ribs are made from spruce and also fabric-covered. A variant has been built with an all-metal wing construction.
Engines used by builders are generally the 65-hp (48-kW) Continental A65, 85-hp (63-kW) Continental C85 or the Lycoming O-235 of 100 hp to 125 hp (75 kW to 93 kW).
Development
Designer Frank Smith died of a heart attack shortly after completing the prototype. His wife, Dorothy, and son, Donald continued to market the plans into the 1970s and Donald worked on a two-seat version, the Miniplane +1.
In the late 1990s Sky Classic Aircraft of Des Moines, Iowa was developing an improved version of the Miniplane designated as the Smith Sport Miniplane. This model featured more cockpit room for larger pilots, a new airfoil and re-drawn plans to aid construction.
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