Spratt 108

08/31/2010. George G. Spratt (1904-1998) of Media, Pennsylvania, USA, formerly a design engineer with Bendix, Consolidated Vultee, Piasecki, and Boeing Vertol, The Boeing Company and Consolidated Vultee (later Convair), had a lifetime devotion to developing a two-piece movable-wing control system, which he claimed provides improved safety factors compared with the conventional aileron, elevator and rudder control system.

While he was with Consolidated Vultee, Spratt designed a roadable aircraft which featured an earlier version of his Controlwing system, but this did not enter production. Since that time Spratt concentrated on perfecting the Controlwing system as a private venture, mostly on flying boats, however, the side-by-side two-seat lightweight Model 108 was a landplane. It was built for the Spratt & Company, Inc. by a friend of the designer, Robert L. Quaintence of Coatsville, Pennsylvania.

Powered by a 60 hp Mercury 983 cc outboard motor boat engine it was flown for the first time in mid-1973. Primarily a composite structure of polyurethane foam and glass fiber, the aircraft featured foldable wings for towing or storage, non-retractable tricycle landing gear of which the nose wheel was designed to attach to a trailer hitch for road towing. The engine was subsequently replaced by a modified Surabu engine. Eventually the aircraft was donated to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum at Reading, Pennsylvania.