The 1946 Stinson 106 Skycoach, one of Stinson’s products during Lesher’s time with this Wayne, Michigan, company. The Skycoach’s pusher propulsion, though, intrigued Lesher and he incorporated this feature into his home-built aircraft.
The Nomad was an all-aluminum side-by-side two-place pusher. Powered by a 100-hp Continental O-200A air-cooled flat-four placed immediately behind the cockpit, fed with air intakes at the wing roots, the Nomad made innovative use of a Dodge Flexidyne Coupling to dampen torsional vibration.
The wing was built as a single assembly with a very simple profile and no dihedral. The vee-tailed empennage and vertical fin in low position was meant to impair the Hartzell propeller’s efficiency as little as possible, while the vertical fin placed below helped to keep the propeller clear from the ground.
Construction began in 1959 and the Nomad, registered N1066Z, flew in October 1961 after 5000 hours of construction. Lesher and the plane took Grand Prize at the 1964 AC Spark Plug Rally.
The Nomad was followed by the better-known Lesher Teal, which also remained a prototype.
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