Dyke Delta - Operational History

Operational History

Including the prototype, under a dozen are in a known flying condition today though nearly that many are currently under construction. One flying Dyke JD-2 Delta is N18DW (s/n 1093), which was constructed in the late 1960s. The bright yellow aircraft was a frequent visitor to EAA fly-ins throughout the 1970s, until it suffered an engine failure which resulted in a severe landing accident en route to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1979. The pilot attempted to land the aircraft on a roadway, but the gear caught the road edge and the aircraft was propelled into a farmer's henhouse, resulting in no injuries to the pilot and passenger but the death of two hens. The remains of N18DW remained in the owner's garage until 2006, when work commenced on restoring the aircraft to flying condition. A larger and more powerful engine was installed, and the cabin was shortened by 5 inches, while the cowling was lengthened by 5 inches to balance the aircraft. Dyke traveled to Florida several times to view the restoration and modifications. The restored aircraft flew for the first time in October 2007. It resides inside the owner's home on Key Largo, Florida and has been restored to its former yellow paint scheme.

Several machines are under construction in the US, Canada and Australia. Within America, builders can be found in California, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Texas, Washington, Oklahoma, Minnesota and other states.

There has been only about one example built per year since the prototype. Contrast this with hundreds of other designs. The tapered wing does give some structural advantages in strength and stiffness that is missing from other aircraft designs. Unfortunately the best features of various designs are not combined in Experimental homebuilt designs.

The Dyke Delta was involved in NASA-funded flight-testing. Kelly Aerospace towed the Delta behind another aircraft to obtain flight towing and engine-off (glider) controllability data for use on future space-travel designs. The Dyke Delta flew quite well in tow and in a glide. Over the years, the JD-2 structure was evaluated by the University of Utah and the Wright Patterson Air Force Base (Ohio) Structural Lab.