By Bill Darnell, EAA 576650
This piece originally ran in the August 2026 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
An old saying goes, “If you can remember Woodstock, you probably weren’t there.” But what if I asked you what you remember about 1976?
I was only 12 at the time, but I clearly recall all the excitement of our nation’s 200th birthday. Literally everything was red, white, and blue that year, and there were celebrations everywhere. Every television show had a bicentennial theme or episodes, and the fireworks in every corner of the country were the most spectacular anyone had ever seen.
No doubt many of you were thinking and dreaming in your preteen and teen years about flying an airplane. Me? Not so much. I was focused on bikes, cars, and motorcycles and knew nothing about EAA and its yearly mass gatherings in Oshkosh. So I was not in attendance at what would later come to be known as AirVenture in the year 1976. I did not attend “Oshkosh” until I was 18 or 19 years old, and I recall being astounded by the sheer number of warbirds in attendance.
Who can forget the first time you saw or more impressively “heard” a flight of 20-30 Rolls-Royce Merlin-powered aircraft fly over, silhouetted against a clear blue sky? The noise, music actually, was incredible. There I go waxing nostalgic. Let’s get back to 1976, shall we?
If you happened to be down at the far end of the convention that year, you no doubt were amazed at the number and variety of colorful hang gliders in attendance. Who among you recalls seeing a biplane hang glider covered in plain white polyester fabric with a tiny 10-hp two-stroke gasoline engine attached between the wings in a pusher configuration? The aircraft I am referring to is, of course, John Moody’s Icarus II, the world’s first powered ultralight capable of taking off from level ground under its own power (plus a little help from John’s feet of course) and flying as high as its intrepid pilot was willing to go (or until the rather unreliable go-kart engine quit or the fuel ran out). That’s exactly what John, EAA 102032, did that year, several times actually.
So, if you were lucky enough to be at Oshkosh in 1976, you witnessed the birth of ultralight flying for the first time anywhere in the world. For a thorough recounting of John’s first flights, you need only visit the EAA online archives and watch John tell the story with great detail and even some awesome video from back in the day.
Not only has John preserved the events of those flights for all to see and hear, but also he kept that original airplane largely unaltered all these years. It suffered some serious damage to one of its wings at some point, and rather than repairing it, John disassembled it and tucked it away in his garage rafters and moved on to other more practical airplane and engine combinations.
Fast-forward to January 2025. John asked if EAA would like to restore and display his original Icarus in the EAA Aviation Museum. By then John was living in Florida, about 20 miles from Lakeland airport, home of SUN ’n FUN Aerospace Expo. The good folks at EAA were excited at the prospect of having John’s history-making aircraft in their collection of historically significant aircraft.
EAA Ultralight and Lightplane Community Manager Timm Bogenhagen contacted Rick Hayes, EAA Lifetime 262014, co-owner of Ultra-Prop and former president of the Michigan Ultralight Association Flying Club (MULA). Timm asked if Rick could pick up the Icarus while he was at SUN ’n FUN and eventually get it to Oshkosh. Rick, being the consummate overachiever that he is, offered not only to transport the airplane but to tackle the restoration of it as well. Timm and EAA gladly accepted the offer.
Unfortunately, Rick fell ill just before SUN ’n FUN and was unable to attend and asked me if I could facilitate the relocation of this important aviation artifact. I was attending the event and had a large enclosed trailer with lots of empty space inside. MULA Vice President Don Niles, EAA 1286113, my friend Jim Rohrbacher, and I went to John’s home and loaded the Icarus into said trailer for its long ride back to Michigan.
Once the pieces were unloaded and cataloged the actual restoration began. First Charlie, EAA 1490082, and Montgomery Morgan, EAA Lifetime 1150936, began cleaning the 49 years’ worth of accumulated dust, dirt, and bird grime from the wings. It was obvious that all the fabric would need to be replaced. As luck would have it, John Moody had purchased and preserved two bolts of white polyester wedding dress lining fabric. It was the same material used in the original construction of the aircraft. All of the old fabric was removed from the wings, and fortunately, the fabric on the twin rudders was still in great shape so we left those alone.
Once the wing was deskinned, we realized that many of the original ribs had been damaged over the years and others were delaminating. Enter retired cabinetmaker and GA pilot Todd Baker, who was asked to create the new ribs at his woodworking shop in Imlay City, Michigan. (Interesting side story, Todd saw John fly his Icarus II in Frankfort, Michigan, in the summer of 1975. Todd was there flying his Rogallo wing hang glider from the tall sand dunes along Lake Michigan and witnessed one of John’s early experimental powered flights.) Todd did a beautiful job re-creating the ribs exactly as they had been built back in the mid-1970s.
Once the wing spars were cleaned of the old glue and fabric and the one badly broken wing was repaired by straightening and splicing the pieces back together, the rebuilding of the Icarus II began in earnest. The new ribs were reattached to the spars, and once they were all on, we assembled the wings and struts together for the first time in nearly 50 years.
After verifying that everything was going to fit, we once again disassembled it and began covering the wings with the new/old fabric. About this time, ultralight legend John Chapman of Otsego, Michigan, entered the picture and donated a brand new MAC-101 engine and correct Icarus II engine mount that he had saved from a dumpster along with the remains of another Icarus/Easy Riser ultralight. The engine was 50-ish years old and had never been started.
Over several days, the wings were re-covered one surface at a time by several MULA members who shall be named later. The restoration is being conducted in the heated hangar of MULA treasurer Robert Edmunds, EAA 1451748, at Dalton Airport (3DA) in Flushing, Michigan. The glue and chemicals used in the restoration are identical to the ones John Moody used way back in 1975 and were donated by Rick and Montgomery.
As of the writing of this article, all wing surfaces have been re-covered and are ready to have a coat of butyrate dope applied to preserve the fragile fabric. Once this is done, the struts that have been re-covered by super-talented seamstress Janie Darnell will be reinstalled and the engine mounted to the airframe. There are several other small details to be taken care of, but by the time you are reading this story and walking the grounds of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2026, the completed aircraft will be on display at the Fun Fly Zone for all to see and enjoy.
If you happen to be at AirVenture, please stop by the tent and meet some of the talented individuals who made the restoration possible. It has been my honor to be involved with this worthy project and to have met the legend himself, John Moody. I would like to extend a huge thank you to the men and women who helped make the restoration possible. The following people contributed to the completion of the project: Todd Baker, Barry Broughton, John Chapman, Bill Darnell, Janie Darnell, Robert Edmunds, Jay Fromm, Rick Hayes, Al Jacobs, Charlie Morgan, Montgomery Morgan, Don Niles, Bill Piche, Josh Raleigh, James Rohrbacher, and Dan Willoughby.
Bill Darnell, EAA 576650, is the current secretary of the Michigan Ultralight Association Flying Club. He started flying ultralights three years ago at the age of 59 and is based at Calkins Field Airport (41C) in Wayland, Michigan.