The Skycoach was a four-place aircraft with a pusher propeller, a configuration which captured Lesher's imagination.
Remembering the Skycoach, he began the design of an all-aluminum two-place, side-by-side, pusher propeller aircraft.
In October 1961, after 5,000 hours of construction, he first flew his aircraft, the Lesher Nomad (N1066Z) at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
A novel design feature was his use of a Dodge Flexidyne Coupling[1] in the drive train to dampen torsional vibrations.
[2] Lesher flew the Nomad to the 1962 EAA Fly-In in Rockford, Illinois, where the design attracted a lot of interest.