EXTRA FLUGZEUGBAU EA 400

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

Touchdown! Greaser!
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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
Anyone have any experience/knowledge of these aircraft?

This was the first time I've encountered one online or on ramp.

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YES! My doctor has one. Ridiculously simple for how complicated it looks. No one ever wants to work on it because of a fear of all things exotic.


It's a killer performer though.... I'm hoping that when I go pick him up to bring it back from Annual he'll take me up
 
To me, the interesting look is that the wing spar appears to be on top of the main body, versus through like some other well known high-wings.

Now that I think of it... it looks a bit MU-2ish

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I believe only 25 of these were built. The 400 was really a development/certification platform for the turboprop 500 (which uses the same basic hull platform), which ended up putting Extra into bankruptcy about 15 years ago.

Not sure if the buyer of the assets ever built any more piston variants, as I recall he bought it for the turboprop potential.

The piston 400 uses a liquid cooled Continental 550 that originally had a short TBO, something under 1000 hrs iirc.

The story about the wing placement is that Walter Extra felt he could minimize the intersection drag with that configuration over a thru hull spar or a low wing.
 
Didn't they have some structural issues? Maybe it was engine issues. I recall that's why they stopped making them but I may be remembering something else. I've flown a 300. I'd rather have a Cub!
 
They stopped making them because Extra went into bankruptcy. The development and certification costs for the turboprop version (the 500) proved too much for the volume of sales/profits it was able to generate from the piston 400.

I know the assets were bought out of bankruptcy, but I don't recall if the new owners produced any more piston aircraft.

This is just one more in a long line of failed examples demonstrating just how difficult it is to see a completely new airplane design through development, certification and production.
 
Stewartb said:
Didn't they have some structural issues? Maybe it was engine issues. I recall that's why they stopped making them but I may be remembering something else. I've flown a 300. I'd rather have a Cub!
Click to expand...

Engine problems. The original liquid cooled engine had a very low TBO
 
The Extra 400 was another example, like the Cardinal, of a high wing sharp looking plane. It had insane performance if I recall correctly. A long time ago Flying ran an article on it when it first came out... too bad for Extra that it didn't thrive
 
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