The 1912 Bates Monoplane was built by Carl S. Bates at Cicero Field near Chicago. Bates was a farm boy from Clear Lake, Iowa, who became interested in flying at an early age. He was only 14 when he constructed a man-carrying kite in 1898. In 1903, he moved to Chicago to attend the Armour Institute of Technology and there came under the guidance of the famous aeronautical pioneer Octave Chanute.
Bates constructed his first airplane in 1908, patterned after the early Curtiss biplanes. He also built aircraft motors and gained a reputation for their lightness and reliability.
In 1911, he is credited with a monoplane of original design, powered with a Bates 30 hp motor. The airplane in the museum is a redesign of that aircraft. The Bates Monoplane is of unusual design. The fore part of the fuselage is of wood, while the structure back of the cockpit is of steel tubing, oval in cross section. It has been described as a hybrid along the lines of the Nieuport, with a “pigeon-tail” empennage and a generous rudder. As displayed in the museum, the aircraft has a Poyer engine.
Walter Kutz of Skokie, Illinois, who later moved to Waterford, Wisconsin, purchased the aircraft in 1918. He stored the aircraft in a barn, but never flew it. In 1957, Leon Tefft, an EAA member, restored the aircraft for Kutz. After Mr. Kutz died, his family decided to loan the airplane to EAA for display in the AirVenture Museum.