Oldfield Baby Great Lakes Explained

The Oldfield Baby Great Lakes is a homebuilt sport biplane. The aircraft has many known names, including the Baby Lakes, Oldfield Baby Lakes, Baby Great Lakes, Super Baby Lakes, Super Baby Great Lakes, and Buddy Baby Lakes[1]

Design and development

The Baby Great Lakes was designed by Barney Oldfield, and originally built by Richard Lane, to be a scaled-down homebuilt derivative of the Great Lakes Sport Trainer.[2]

The Baby Great Lakes is built using 1361NaN1 of steel tubing for the fuselage with aircraft fabric covering.[3] The wings use spruce spars. The aircraft can accommodate engines ranging from the Continental A-65 to the Volkswagen air-cooled engine.[4]

Operational history

The prototype was not intended to be produced in quantity, but enough plans were requested that the aircraft was marketed as a homebuilt design. The rights to the Baby Great Lakes were acquired by Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co in May 1996.[5]

Variants

Super Baby Lakes
  • Accommodates engines over 1000NaN0
    Buddy Baby Lakes
  • Two-place variant

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: Baby Great Lakes Biplane Home. May 3, 2011.
    2. Sport Aviation . May 1958.
    3. Popular Science. June 1970.
    4. Book: Build your own sport plane: with homebuilt aircraft directory. Don Dwiggins.
    5. Web site: Baby Great Lakes. 3 May 2011. Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co. 2011.