Burt Rutan's Skigull

[TFulwider]

This thing seems to have dropped off the radar. I know they found some unacceptable stall issues in the test flights but that was back in March. Does anyone have any new information?

 

[Acrodustertoo]

They realized that the name was terrible, scrapped the whole project.

 

[Art VanDelay]

I'm curious as well. It's not like Mr. Rutan has ever been satisfied with base-hits !

 

[Dav8or]

I suspect Burt is in poor health. Tends to delay projects.

 

[TFulwider]

Hopefully he ends up being ok and the project gets finished. It was an interesting idea

 

[TFulwider]

I found this video on YouTube. Burt gave a talk to the students at North Idaho College about the SkiGull. He admitted that he made several bad mistakes with the airplane that required some redesign. He says that the airplane is complete now, ready for paint. He's done some stall tests on the runway and said he was hoping to continue the test flights in the coming weeks.

Audio isn't very good, but it's an interesting talk to listen

 

[Zeldman]

At least he is recognizing mistakes and not continuing on without addressing them.

 

[Art VanDelay]

I found this video on YouTube. Burt gave a talk to the students at North Idaho College about the SkiGull. He admitted that he made several bad mistakes with the airplane that required some redesign. He says that the airplane is complete now, ready for paint. He's done some stall tests on the runway and said he was hoping to continue the test flights in the coming weeks.

Audio isn't very good, but it's an interesting talk to listen

Thanks for posting. I'm a big fan of this ac. Even though I know it's extremely unlikely he will ever release plans for the Skigull I hope maybe just maybe someone else might come up with a close copy.

 

[TFulwider]

Thanks for posting. I'm a big fan of this ac. Even though I know it's extremely unlikely he will ever release plans for the Skigull I hope maybe just maybe someone else might come up with a close copy.

He has said several times that if it performs as he hopes that he would like to see someone release a kit or plans. He's not going to do it himself, but I can imagine that there would be somebody on his team willing to step forward. I don't think it'll be a very inexpensive bird to build though.

 

[Art VanDelay]

I don't think it'll be a very inexpensive bird to build though.

Really, why ? If it's a mold less composite like all his other kits it won't be very expensive at all. The most expensive part will be the Rotax engine in that case.

 

[TFulwider]

Really, why ? If it's a mold less composite like all his other kits it won't be very expensive at all. The most expensive part will be the Rotax engine in that case.

I don't believe he's using mold less construction for the fuselage and wing parts. There has to be a fair amount of complexity in the way the gear system works as well which can't be cheap. I hope I'm wrong!

 

[Clark1961]

Not to mention the electrical system...

 

[ettsn]

I found this video on YouTube.

What I'd give to sit in on that session! Thanks for sharing, that was great.