Current Restorations

The NB-8G is of special interest to the Museum because it was built in Missouri. The Museum's aircraft was taken to an airshow at Marshall, MO in 1987 where it was viewed by a number of former Nicholas-Beazley employees who had actually worked on the aircraft. N543Y has been at Creve Coeur Airport since mid 1986.

As you can see from the pictures, the "Beazer" is a high-wing parasol. It was marketed as a two-place sport-trainer, but looks were not the airplane's high point:

"One could hardly say that the NB-8 was a pretty airplane because every line and every dimension was almost a detriment to its looks; spindly-legged, with its broad wing perched too high atop its squat fuselage it looked altogether unwieldy. But, its homely charm lie in inner traits of personality and behavior that could win you over much quicker than the curves and dimension of outward beauty." -- Joe Juptner, U.S. CIVIL AIRCRAFT, VOL. 5, p 151.

The NB-8 was designed by Tom Kirkup and started its life with a 36 h.p. two-cylinder Aeronca engine, like the one on the Aeronca K in the museum. A Szekely engine was tried next, but was also found to be unsuitable. N-B finally settled on the "Genet" engine.

According to Juptner, Nicholas-Beazley found a "bargain" lot of 80 h.p. (2310 r.p.m.) Armstrong-Siddeley "Genet" engines that became available when Fairchild Airplane & Engine Company was taken over by the Aviation Corp. Fairchild had been the U.S. distributor for the English-built ("it-turns-backwards!") engine. With the purchase of 57 engines, N-B became the U.S. distributor for the "Genet".