Pietenpol Air Camper

The Pietenpol Air Camper was designed by an American aircraft engineer Bernard H. Pietenpol, who has been designing aircrafts from his young age. Home-built aircrafts were becoming popular in 1920s in US. Pietenpol wanted to design an affordable airplane, simple enough to be built by most craftsmen without special equipment.

In 1928 Pietenpol tested simple parasol wing homebuilt aircraft prototype, that became the first Air Camper. The original model used the Ace four cylinder water-cooled engine. In May 1929 the Ford Model A engine was used, and became the standard powerplant. Air Camper build plans were published in a magazine in 1931-1932, the aircraft was also available to purchase as a kit.

Since then, Air Campers have been built using over 50 recorded different automotive and aviation power plants.