Nelson Dragonfly / Bowlus Bumblebee BB1
The Dragonfly, designed by Hawley Bowlus, was the first auxiliary-powered glider to be produced in the U.S.A. The designers nicknamed this design the Bumblebee but they sold the powered glider under the official moniker, Dragonfly. It featured 2-place, side-by-side seating, retractable tricycle landing gear and a Nelson engine.
While the concept was good, the airplane never achieved real success, because it didn't perform well, and because Nelson took his engine and left the partnership. The beautiful wooden fuselage pod made up of layers of mahogany was very labour intensive and thus very expensive. Some Dragonflys had the engine removed, converting them to pure sailplanes.
Once owned by Peter Bowers, well known designer, historian and glider enthusiast, the Museum’s aircraft was sold to Airplane Supply Centre in 1956, by which time its engine had been removed and it had been converted to a sailplane. It was later sold to Val Hinch of Victoria, who carried out necessary work to license the aircraft and who flew it on Vancouver Island in the early 1960's. It was then placed in storage, and finally donated to CMF in 1983 by Val Hinch. It is one of less than 10 built and of 2 left in the world.
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