Bernard Pietenpol

A designer of homebuilt aircraft, Pietenpol was a self-taught mechanic who lived most of his life in the small community of Cherry Grove in southeastern Minnesota.

His best-known design, the Pietenpol Air Camper, was meant to be built and flown by the "average American" of the 1930s.

[1] The Air Camper is a two-place open cockpit monoplane with "parasol" wing built from material that was, in the 1930s, readily available from local sources.

With the success of the Air Camper, MMI editor Weston Farmer convinced Pietenpol to design an airplane that could be powered with the cheaper and more readily available Ford Model T engine.

His hangar was disassembled and relocated to Pioneer Airport, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin as part of the EAA Aviation Museum.