original Baby Ace was built in 1929, in Topeka, Kansas. Designer O.G. ("Ace") Corben later established the Corben Sportplane Company (Madison, Wisconsin), where six Baby Aces were built, with kits also sold. The Corben Sport Plane and Supply Co. (Peru, Indiana), began producing the Baby Ace both in kit form and as a complete, flying aircraft. Kits included pre-welded assemblies for the fuselage, controls, tail and landing gear. Two models were offered, using using the same wings, tails, controls and landing gear: a single-seat. open-cockpit, parasol-wing model, and an enclosed, two-seat, high-wing version. In America, state and federal laws banned homebuilding and flight in the uncertified designs by 1938. In 1948, Experimental aircraft were allowed to be built again in America. In 1952, EAA founder Paul Poberezny bought the rights to the Ace designs for $200, and produced a sub-$800 Baby Ace that was featured in Mechanix Illustrated (; some say Popular Mechanics). The series of articles were in conjunction with a CAA effort to revitalize American aviation by promoting amateur built aircraft. The articles drew intense national interest, resulting in hundreds of the planes being built, with various engines -- and elevating then then-obscure EAA to national prominence. To avoid compromising its non-profit status, EAA sold the rights to the planes to Cliff DuCharme (West Bend, Wisconsin), who resumed kit production, with a revised Model D (first flight: November 15, 1956). and a revised Junior Ace Model E. Subsequently, plans, parts, and kits for both the Baby Ace and Junior Ace became available from Thurman Baird's Ace Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Asheville, North Carolina). "Progressive" kits (buy sections as you build) also became available. and remain so, as of 2015.<ref name="homebuilt_directory_2015_kitplanes">"2015 Homebuilt Aircraft Directory," p.29, December 2014, Kitplanes" magazine.</ref> In 1974, aviation historians John Underwood and Peter Bowers reported 200 Baby Aces were flying, with only one prewar example still active. They noted that only a very few of the Junior Aces had been built before the 1930's CAA crackdown on amateur-built aircraft, with just two of the 1930s two-seaters still flying. However, in 1979, aviation journalist Don Dwiggins estimated the number of flying Baby Aces in the United States and Canada had dwindled to around 70. A 1958 Baby Ace is currently the oldest Canadian homebuilt aircraft flying. Variants Baby Ace Single-seat Super Ace Single-seat powered by a Ford Model A automotive engine. Plans updated by EAA founder Paul