Design and construction of the two-place Osprey 2 amphibian began early in 1972 following development of a military version, the U.S. Navy X-28A Air Skimmer, for civil police use in Southeast Asia. The designer, George Pereira, evolved a unique construction technique for the single-place Osprey 1 by coating the underside of the all-wood fuselage structure with polyurethane foam, later sculptured to the desired shape and covered with several protective layers of fiberglass bonded with resin. The result is a light, strong structure able to resist the shock of hard water landings. The pusher engine is a Lycoming O-320 flat-four of 160 hp mounted on a pedestal so the prop wash blows directly over the cruciform tail surfaces. Wings are of all-wood construction with a single box spar, while the landing gear for use on land is of the retractable tricycle type. The wings just outboard of the main gear are removable for towing and home storage. The Osprey 2 was designed to be built, in its entirety, in a workshop with no molds required, and first flew in 1973.
