There were thousands of aircraft, but one stopped me in my tracks: Beautiful Doll, an RV-8 built by a guy named Danny King. When I was building my RV-8, this was what I hoped it would become.

The wreckage of a Aeronca Champion, a small two-seat plane from the 1950s, can be seen in this aerial photo Thursday, Dec. 27, 2001, east of Lake Berryessa near Petaluma, Calif., after taking off ...