FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1979
1979 - 1211.PDF
vmmmm^^g^^^^^^^^^M Prop-swinger Burt Rutan is watched by Gene Sheehan (far left), who did most of the prototype construction work looked at closely came from a Honda CB175 motorcycle, producing 18 h.p., but it proved almost impossible to hone its weight down to a realistic figure without weakening the crank- case. Reduction gear on any engine was considered unacceptable from the outset, since it adds complexity, cost, vibration and the need for an electric starter weighing perhaps 251b. The search continued, ending up at Onan, a long-established maker of two- cylinder four-stroke engines for a wide variety of machines from elec tric generators to snowploughs. Solidly reliable, they are accustomed to running at high power for long periods, often with indifferent main tenance. One big drawback was the weight of the cast-iron block, but Onan turned out some aluminium versions, encouraging Sheehan and Jewett to look closely at adopting the engine for Quickie. It proved pos sible to prune the weight down to about 701b for an engine that would develop 18 h.p. at 3,600 r.p.m., and after much ground testing and ex perimentation with cooling and in duction systems they decided that Quickie had an engine. Burt Rutan now became involved in the project and looked at various design options. Keeping the drag down for such low power seemed at first to call for retractable landing gear, but that would have added com plications and weight. A pusher- engined configuration, or miniature VariEze, would have had a very narrow e.g. range. Eventually Rutan settled on the canard tractor/tailess "biplane," a concept which seemed to solve several problems. The pilot could sit very close to the e.g., and the combined canard foreplane and landing-gear enclosures were simple and efficient in drag and weight JJMpWlwi terms. Safe stall characteristics would be another asset. The prototype was completed in 400 manhours and was first flown towards the end of 1977, all three designers trying it out on its first day in the air from Mojave, California. Only two major changes have been made to the Quickie since its earliest taxiing days. One was the addition of a conventional rudder, mentioned previously, and the other was the re placement of the original simple ele vator by a slotted surface similar to that on the VariEze. This was to improve the foreplane's lifting ability, which had previously been limited by airflow separation at shallow elevator angles. The change reduced both stall- speed and take-off/landing distances. Boarding Quickie is a fairly easy process since the cockpit sill (and fuselage longeron) is only 34in above the ground. Once ensconced, the pilot SSSiSg iilsip HI* 'f^^0? I0^M&SBV^ -l$r$ar tflll fig w % • - mi SBi •s>- s»:,:;*ssif^
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
