This page is dedicated to my father, Woodrow W. Black, who has enjoyed flying, designing, and building aircraft. Since his diabetes the FAA won't allow him to fly his small planes over cornfields and forests, but he still enjoys power boating, ultra-lights, and driving a car 70 miles per hour down the populated freeway.

Woodrow Black flew his first aircraft at 14 years old.

He purchased a 1939 Fairchild in 1968.

Other Aircraft he owned included a Luscomb and an Aircoupe. If you look closely at the picture above the Luscomb that he bought later was in the background by the starboard wheel pants.

The man who started my dad flying high was Carl Fischer owner of the Serenade Drive In where my Father was employed as a fry cook. Of course Carl was also the owner of this Waco UPF7 -deep red with cream stripes- and he was a member of Cedar Lake Flying Club in the 1950's.

One winter when I was just a child Dad locked himself in the workshop and built the world's smallest signal passenger aircraft. "The Black Mite" was the product of a severe case of cabin fever and the need to design a small affordable aircraft. The Black Mite was built for little more that $500 (less engine) using materials anybody could purchase at a local hardware store.

Guinness Book never officially recognized the Black Mite since the FAA never licensed the plane. They deemed it was an ultra-light and not a real aircraft. He made a few flights in The Black Mite and the plane made big headlines in the following papers:

• The Detroit News
• The Bay City Times
• The Shepherd Argus

It was seen on television and he even took it to a few airshows including the Detroit Airshow in the summer of 1980. People began requesting his plans, one set was sent to the Egyptian Airforce. After a near fatal accident he put the aircraft into storage facility to this day.

Never completely satisfied with his original design my father designed The Black Mite II but due to his age he never built that version. It only exists on paper and that's why I rendered this picture from a CAD program. I am not a pilot let alone a test pilot, so I doubt this aircraft will ever be built.