The development of the Dragonfly was sponsored by the Nelson Engine Company to promote the use of their H-44 25 hp four cylinder two-stroke engine. The engine was mounted in the rear of the fuselage pod, in pusher configuration, with the wooden two bladed 42 in. propeller below the metal tail boom. The fuel tank holds 3 gallons, enough for self-launching, but not for cross-country powered flight.

 

The Dragonfly shares the Baby Albatross's molded plywood fuselage pod, aluminum tube tail boom and strut-braced double spar wooden wing, covered in aircraft fabric aft of the spar. The leading edge is a plywood D-cell. The aircraft features dual controls and a retractable tricycle landing gear with a steerable nose wheel. The engine is started by a ratchet-wire recoil start system that allows restarts in flight, as well as on the ground.

 

Federal Aviation Administration certification of the type was achieved on 21 April 1947, with Nelson Aircraft Corporation as the certificate holder and the type officially known as Nelson Auxiliary Power Glider BB-1. The type certificate indicates that neither the engine nor the propeller need be certified. The type certificate specifies that the Nelson H-49 engine of 28 hp (21 kW) may also be installed.

 

Our Dragonfly hasn't flown since the 1980s but is very close to being airworthy again.

 

The Dragonfly was later replaced in production by the improved Nelson Hummingbird PG-185B.

 

About the Designer:

 

William Hawley Bowlus (May 8, 1896 – August 27, 1967 was an American designer, engineer and builder of aircraft (especially gliders) and recreational vehicles in the 1930s and 1940s. Today he is most widely known for his creation of the world's first aluminum travel trailer, the Bowlus Road Chief, which Airstream imitated in 1936 to create the Clipper. This followed his prior famed work as the Superintendent of Construction on Charles Lindbergh's aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis.

 

Bowlus was an expert at soaring flight and at building gliders, established numerous records, trained many of America's earliest glider pilots, and gave gliding lessons to both Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In 1930 he and Lindbergh glided at various locations in California, including the Arvin-Sierra flying site in Arvin. Most notably Point Loma in San Diego California where Bowlus conducted many of his flights and tests.

 

Charles Lindbergh established a regional distance record for gliders by flying in a Bowlus sailplane from Mount Soledad in La Jolla to Del Mar, making use of the lift at the Torrey Pines Gliderport. Anne Morrow Lindbergh also flew in a Bowlus sailplane from Mount Soledad and became the first woman in the United States to receive a "first class" glider license (Maxine Dunlap had preceded her in becoming the first woman in the United States to receive a glider license of any kind, a "third class" glider license). Bowlus was also the first American to break Orville Wright's 1911 soaring duration record in an American designed and built sailplane.