EAA SWRFI Press Release, March 25 2005

San Antonio
25 March 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Building one’s own airplane is the heart of Experimental Aircraft
Association

At the beginning, a century ago, things with wings were not manufactured
or mass produced. Airplanes were hand-made, in someone’s workshop or
stable. ‘Contraptions’ of wood, wire, and fabric, they flew in spite of
their builders’ only rudimentary knowledge of aerodynamics.

A mere decade later The Great War broke out in Europe and airplanes
became weapons. Enormous resources poured into their development, and
aeronautical progress accelerated. It remained possible, however, to
construct an airplane from scratch in someone’s workshop or garage.

After the War To End War airplanes began delivering mail, carrying
adventurous passengers, spanning oceans, penetrating the polar regions,
competing in races and undergoing rapid technical improvement. Metal
started replacing wood and fabric, engines became more reliable, and
production-line methods were applied. Yet skilled craftsmen could still
build an airplane by hand in a shop, much the way Ryan Aircraft of San
Diego built an all-metal monoplane to the specifications of a pilot
named Lindbergh, in about six weeks in the year 1927.

In another human generation came a Second World War, in which airplanes
played a decisive role. Production lines turned out thousands of war
planes. Visionaries said that the end of World War Two would see
aviation transformed into a mass market, with personal airplanes as
cheap and universal as Henry Ford’s automobiles, and air travel
affordable by everyone. Only the second part of this vision came true
with the growth of airlines into another form of mass transportation.
Private airplanes, however, never sold in mass quantities, and many
small airplane manufacturers failed or were bought out by companies with
deeper pockets who simply shelved the private plane designs.

Still, the steady growth and spread of aerodynamic knowledge, better
tools and cheaper materials meant it was not only possible but actually
easier than ever for a man with a dream of flying to assemble an
airplane in his garage or a friend’s hangar. As do-able as building a
boat, or turning a ‘36 coupe into a street rod.

In the early ‘fifties, groups of enthusiastic do-it-yourself airplane
builders were getting together at rallies dubbed ‘fly-ins’ to swap
information, share expertise and admire each other’s airplanes. They
formed a national organization called the Experimental Aircraft
Association after the title of particular chapters in the Federal
Aviation Regulations — which the leaders of their movement helped
officials draft — that sanctioned and specified the building and flying
of home-built aircraft.

In 1953, the same year that a group of home-builders in the Middle West
began holding annual fly-ins at Milwaukee; a similar group in Texas
started getting together in 1963 and every summer thereafter at the
airfield in Georgetown. The Wisconsin fly-in ultimately developed into
AirVenture Oshkosh. The Georgetown, Texas fly-in became known as the
Southwest Regional Fly-In.

The Southwest Regional Fly-In grew over the next forty years from a
handful of home-builders to an event hosting hundreds of aircraft and
thousands of aviation enthusiasts. The SWRFI outgrew Georgetown
municipal airfield and moved to Kerrville. Eventually too big for
Schreiner Field, it moved again to Abilene Regional, and in 2003 from
Abilene to New Braunfels with renewed success in spite of aircraft
parking and taxiing problems. But 2004 at New Braunfels was hampered by
heavy rain which produced acres of mud and made safe operation difficult.

This year, the Southwest Regional Fly-In comes to Hondo, Texas, an ideal
site for it to grow.

Hondo Airfield was constructed in 1942 in less than three months, but
they built it big, built it right, and built it to last. Three
generations later, the runways from which just about every apprentice
Army Air Corps navigator lifted off to learn his trade by sighting the
big, bright stars at night are still broad, long, well maintained and
welcoming. The parking ramps can still accomodate thousands of
airplanes, and if it rains the water runs off promptly.

The Experimental Aircraft Assocation of which SWRFI — now called just
The Texas Fly-In — is a regional associate, will be on hand to present
an EAA Member village, like the one they operate at Oshkosh, to provide
information on all the different programs and services the EAA provides
its members.

Hondo’s a great location for a gathering of people who love building
their own airplanes, and for those who want to learn how to build them,
as well as the general public which just likes to inspect human-scale
machines that fly.

There’s space enough at Hondo for manufacturers and sellers of aviation
products to exhibit their wares. Space enough for all kinds of food and
a variety of technical displays and discussions, as well as feasting and
partying at the end of each day.

Finally, there’s enough space at Hondo for The Texas Fly-In to have an
Air Show. On Saturday afternoon, May 14th, and Sunday afternoon, May
15th aerobatic performers will astonish us with their amazing aerial
maneuvers.

For more information, visit The Texas Fly-In web site at
http://www.swrfi.org/.

-30-

Contact: E. D. Yoes, Jr.
Secretary, SWRFI