I had a very cool opportunity to watch and photograph a pretty historic plane today. Steve Beaver has been restoring/building this Bücker Jungmann Bü 131 for the past 17 years. Today was only his fourth flight in this beautiful airplane. The Bü 131 was first built and flown in Germany in 1934. It was built as a trainer when Germany started rebuilding their air-force and production continued in Spain until the early 1960’s. This particular example was in fact built in Spain sometime in the early 50’s. Steve started out with the basic fuselage frame, fuel tank, seats and a few other parts and built the rest himself over the last 17 years! A true life story of the guy building an airplane in his garage !! Out of the estimated 5000 planes built, as few as 100 remain today with only a dozen or so in the U.S. Steve’s plane is painted in the official colors of the Swiss Air-force.
The man himself as he prepares for flight
a special thanks to Steve for allowing us to share his flight today.
Go ahead and click on either image to see the slideshow
4 Comments
What a work of art and labor of love! Beautiful job sharing that moment!
Mark,
I cannot believe how great these pictures are. I have never enjoyed the privilege of having an airplane so beautifully photographed before.
Thanks you!
Steve – Thank you for the kind words, it was certainly a pleasure to see her fly after all the hard work you’ve put into her. Would love to have the chance to do it again!
TOO COOL!
i loved your pic’s and title.
thanks for sharing your wonderful experience.