Lynn Williams’ modern period piece allows you to indulge your Walter Mitty leanings.

By Bob Grimstead

For those of us who, like Snoopy, have entertained the daydream of going head to head with some worthy enemy aviator during wartime, behold the Staaken Flitzer as a way to further facilitate the fantasy. It is a remarkable airplane—the only biplane I know of that will not only fly, but fly really well behind the modest power of a VW engine. While the Flitzer is supposed to be a mythical inter-war sportplane, this thing’s an eagle in dove’s plumage.

Brainchild of British aviation artist and lifelong aeronautical enthusiast Lynn Williams, the Flitzer is a modern design with a distinctly period flavor, masquerading as a 1920s German sport biplane of Great War layout. Williams supplies plans for several sub-types of the basic design. The original Z-1 Flitzer was his bright red prototype, powered by an 1835cc VW. Next came the stronger Z-21, incorporating a longer-span horizontal stabilizer and other small refinements,…

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