Talk:Barber Snark

"There are no current plans to build any more Snarks."

"No current plans" - A citation request was posted, but I removed it as it is impossible to prove a negative. I don't need to declare a conflict of interest as such, but I do have an interest. In 2008 I discussed with Tim Cripps whether the Snark might be brought to the UK. I still have the correspondence, in which Tim explained the difficulties:

"Perhaps you can drum up a consortium to fill the space of an enthusiastic billionaire, but this thing has cost us about £35k already and all we have to show for it is one half fuselage mould and the plug to make the rest of the fuselage (but not the wings, which anyway need revising to new co-ordinates given to us by a top US aerodynamicist (Bill Barber approves)). We also have the mould materials--top quality stuff to make it suitable for the USA and standing out in the sun in the Mohave desert at 45C. My colleague worked for Boeing and USAF and would only consider the top quality for everything, which, of course, we could not sustain. I suppose you realise the huge amount of work involved in getting PFA approval (I'd forget the BMAA and go for VLA/US SLA), but really I don't want to be involved at all. Bill is a great chap and a genius as a designer and I'm sure he would be glad to see his plane made into a world-beater, but .... my guess is he won't want to get involved .... Without him to give you his stress calculations, and build details (e.g how many layers of kevlar and carbon, laid which way etc) you would have an impossible job to reverse engineer it, and the PFA would have to ask you to demonstrate the breaking strength of many parts (e.g the boom), in lieu of calculations or proper stress analysis".

Both Tim Cripps and designer Bill Barber must now be quite elderly, and David Laing has died; and I know of no plans to revive this wonderful aircraft. Arrivisto (talk) 12:32, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

Hi Arrivisto

Last year I purchased ZK-PIE, one of Bill Barber's HA3-B Snarks. Bill, who designed the aircraft and built its airframe, is assisting me to troubleshoot some problems with it. I have visited Bill in Queenstown a total of 5 times, and frequently phone or email him about Snarks.

Bill's final Snark (designated an HA3-D) has been sitting in his workshop ready to go for a long time. He's fitted a Suzuki G16A 1600cm3 engine with variable-pitch prop. https://bbsnark.weebly.com/ha3d.html

Bill had a stroke about 8 years ago, and his reduced mobility and balance prevents him from getting this beautifully finished aircraft flying. With his son Anton, who helped build many of the Snarks, now living in Western Australia, Bill is not sure what will happen to this aircraft.

The existence of this HA3-D aircraft is great for me, because I can easily pop in and take photos and measurements, plus glean technical details and advice from Bill's very sharp brain, then get invited to afternoon tea..

In an attempt to 'verify' the Wikipedia article about the Barber Snark, I have sourced a PDF scan of the Tim Cripps article in the Todays' Pilot magazine (attached as PDF).

Also John King, the air-to-air photographer for the 2006 flight review, has emailed me his original photos.

Recently I visited two other Snarks, HA2 (ZK-DQL) and HA3-C (ZK-JPS), to take photos and measurements of their engine installations, control systems, etc.

I'd like to help verify the Barber Snark wikipedia page, but don't know how to do it. Please can you help me with this?

Cheers, Bruce

PS: I created the Barber Snark Aircraft website to bring together all the information and photos about Bills' aircraft designs. B H Conway (talk) 23:01, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

Self-published sources

This article has just two refs and both are WP:SPS, which means it fails WP:GNG. We really need to find some proper third party sources if this article is to be retained. Do any exist? - Ahunt (talk) 12:24, 13 August 2020 (UTC)\

The previous sentence implies that this page may not "be retained". I'm sad that this page has been pruned; perhaps one can follow WP guidelines too closely. If this page goes, there will be nothing on WP to explain the significance of this lovely little aircraft, of which at least five have been built and which have had rave reviews from top class pilots. Of course it is difficult to find 3rd party material on this plane, but there is Tim Cripps' article in Pilot magazine. I've got it somewhere, and will supply references when I find it. I have more correspondence from Tim Cripps where he exhorts me to try and save this plane. In the meantime, please do not delete this page! Arrivisto (talk) 14:01, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

That article sounds promising as a ref. Right now this article doesn't pass WP:GNG, so it needs some real third party refs to stay here! Is it described in Jane's for any year? Our libraries are closed for reference books, so I can't get in to check. - Ahunt (talk) 14:04, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Hi Ahunt

Last year I purchased ZK-PIE, one of Bill Barber's HA3-B Snarks. Bill, who designed the aircraft and built its airframe, is assisting me to troubleshoot some problems with it. I have visited Bill in Queenstown a total of 5 times, and frequently phone or email him about Snarks.

Bill's final Snark (designated an HA3-D) has been sitting in his workshop ready to go for a long time. He's fitted a Suzuki G16A 1600cm3 engine with variable-pitch prop. https://bbsnark.weebly.com/ha3d.html

Bill had a stroke about 8 years ago, and his reduced mobility and balance prevents him from getting this beautifully finished aircraft flying. With his son Anton, who helped build many of the Snarks, now living in Western Australia, Bill is not sure what will happen to this aircraft.

The existence of this HA3-D aircraft is great for me, because I can easily pop in and take photos and measurements, plus glean technical details and advice from Bill's very sharp brain, then get invited to afternoon tea..

In an attempt to 'verify' the Wikipedia article about the Barber Snark, I have sourced a PDF scan of the Tim Cripps article in the Todays' Pilot magazine (attached as PDF).

Also John King, the air-to-air photographer for the 2006 flight review, has emailed me his original photos.

Recently I visited two other Snarks, HA2 (ZK-DQL) and HA3-C (ZK-JPS), to take photos and measurements of their engine installations, control systems, etc.

I'd like to help verify the Barber Snark wikipedia page, but don't know how to do it. Please can you help me with this?

Cheers, Bruce

PS: I created the Barber Snark Aircraft website to bring together all the information and photos about Bills' aircraft designs. B H Conway (talk) 23:02, 9 June 2026 (UTC)