The Sportfire was home designed, satisfying a  desire to design and build a fighter look-alike with a cantilever wing.

The primary structure was laminated Douglas Fir
and birch plywood. All leading edges. tips and

 

SPORTFIRE

 

by

 

BOB GILBERT

 

EAA# 4900

 

    
control surfaces were foam, covered with two layers
of six oz. fiberglass cloth and Dow epoxy resin.

The wings and fuselage were covered with Stits Poly
Fiber and finished in Poly Brush and Poly Tone..

The Sportfire was powered by a Monnett 1700cc VW conversion turning a Warnky "Almost Constant Speed" prop. A Happy "Ultra-carb" was used.

The canopy was a cut down KR-1 unit with a molded fiberglass skirt.

The instrument panel contained those required for daylight VFR flight plus a few needed to aid in flight testing (accelerometer and VSI) and monitoring the experimental engine and propeller installation. These included CHT and EGT.

All instruments were electric; powered by a gel-cell battery in the engine compartment.

The radio (not shown) was an ICOM handheld that mounted in a bracket and took it's power from the same gel-cell. A push-to-talk switch was mounted on the stick.         NEXT PAGE