I started thinking about a new cowling in the late 1980s.  I would watch the streaks the rain made on the upper cowling.  At the time, I was working at the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base and researching the affects of flow turning on combustion instability in solid propellant rocket motors. 

In 1999 I met Dave Chandler who was making fiberglass parts at a company in Mojave, CA.  He also lived in Lancaster.  Dave made a lot of things for me over the next 18 or 19 years.  I kept a record of what I paid him over the years:  roughly $140,000.  Anyway, back to the story. 

That same year I got a beat-up AG5B lower cowling from Garner Rice at Fletchair.  Then I got some foam and Bondo.  For 3 months in the summer of 1999 I built the master for the Jaguar Cowling.  As you can see from the (not so good scan of a photograph) below, I sectioned the cowling and brought it in about an inch on each side.  I brought the front up, as well.  Originally the plane was to use the landing light housing from an AA5B.  WAY too complicated.  My landing light housing is now mounted on the inside.  It makes for a lot cleaner look. 

I finished this cowling and painted it in white Imron.  If you didn't know better you would have sworn it was a real cowling and not 10 gallons of Bondo over foam.

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