The Bearhawk, is a line of light utility aircraft produced by Bearhawk Aircraft of

Fairview, OKlahoma Fairview is a city in Major County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,740 at the time of the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Major County. History The first permanent settlers arrived in the area of the present town at the ti ...

. The aircraft is supplied as a kit or as plans for amateur construction.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 44. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter – Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 232. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015–16'', page 102. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The Bearhawk was designed in the early 1990s as a personal project by Barrows to carry aircraft engines for delivery as freight. It features a

strut-braced In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of struts, which act in ...

high-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...

, a four-seat enclosed cabin that is wide and accessed by doors, fixed

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft Landing gear, undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the Center of gravity of an aircraft, center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail ...

and a single engine in

tractor configuration In aviation, a tractor configuration is a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft with its engine mounted with the propeller in front, so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. This is the usual configuration; the pusher configuration ...

. The aircraft

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

is made from welded steel tubing covered in doped

aircraft fabric Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures. The de Havilland Mosquito is an example of this technique, as are ...

, while the wings are made from

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

sheet. Its span wing employs a NACA 4412 mod

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...

, has an area of and mounts flaps. The aircraft's recommended engine power range is and standard engines used include the

Lycoming O-360 The Lycoming O-360 is a family of four-cylinder, direct-drive, horizontally opposed, air-cooled, piston aircraft engines. Engines in the O-360 series produce between , with the basic O-360 producing . The engine family has been installed in ...

and

Lycoming O-540 The Lycoming O-540 is a family of air-cooled six-cylinder, horizontally opposed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter engines of displacement, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. The engine is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Lycoming O- ...

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

powerplants. Construction time from the supplied kit is 1200 hours. The prototype was fitted with a Lycoming O-360 burning automotive fuel, but in August 2023, the option of fitting the DeltaHawk DHK180

type certified A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). Certification confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production is in compliance w ...

, two-stroke

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

was added.

Operational history

By October 2016, 77 examples had been

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

and 11 with

Transport Canada Transport Canada () is the Ministry (government department), department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, Policy, policies and Public services, services of road, rail, marine and air Transport in Canada, tra ...

Variants

;Bearhawk (4-Place Bearhawk) :Four seat model with a cabin wide and a gross weight of , with 75 reportedly completed and flown by December 2011. Employs a NACA 4412

. ;Bearhawk Bravo :Improved model introduced at

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in July 2016. The wing has a greater span and greater area and employs a Riblett 30-413.5 airfoil, which gives a higher top speed while retaining a low stall speed. The redesigned airframe also uses aluminum fuselage formers, window sills and door sills, replacing the steel formers and sills in the original model, which provides better corrosion resistance and less weight. The landing gear struts are made of heavy-wall round cross section tubing rather than streamlined tubing, which provides more resistance to sideload failure. ;

Patrol A patrol is commonly a group of personnel, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel, or security personnel, that are assigned to monitor or secure a specific geographic area. Etymology The word "patrol" is derived from the Frenc ...

:Two-seats in

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

model with a cabin wide and a gross weight of , with three reportedly completed and flown by December 2011. ; Companion :Two-seats in

side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

model, with a gross weight of . First customer deliveries in October 2019.

Specifications (Bearhawk)

References

External links

* {{Bob Barrows aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft 1990s United States civil utility aircraft Bearhawk High-wing aircraft Single-engined piston aircraft Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear