[I am reposting this from another thread so as not to hijack that one.]
Longtime members will have heard this before, but I have long thought that blending elements of the Rutan Quickie and the Mauboussin Hémiptère would make a great little sport aircraft.
Take the shark-fin aesthetics, high aspect ratio wings, and swoopy canopy of the Quickie and merge it with the short, boat-like fuselage and wingtip rudders of the Hémiptère, then give it simple tricycle gear with a free-swiveling nosewheel and differential brakes and power it with one of the liquid-cooled two-strokes like a Polini Thor or maybe an industrial V-twin four-stroke. A 16'/4.9 m span front wing and a 12'/3.7 m span rear wing with tails could each be built in one piece in a small workshop, ditto the short fuselage no more than 16'/4.9 m long spinner to sternpost. A 30"/ 76 m chord would give you 70 sq ft/6.5 m2 of wing area (30% more than a Quickie) or a slower, short-field version could have a 36"/91 cm chord for 84 sq ft/7.8 m2 (56% more than a Quickie). Someday....
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Here are both three-views and a composite plan view to scale, what I have in mind would be about halfway between the two. This might be a great application for a monowheel (main and tailwheel) or bicycle (main and nosewheel) landing gear with outriggers on the front wing without the Quickie's problems with the main wheels on the tips of the front wing.
Longtime members will have heard this before, but I have long thought that blending elements of the Rutan Quickie and the Mauboussin Hémiptère would make a great little sport aircraft.
Take the shark-fin aesthetics, high aspect ratio wings, and swoopy canopy of the Quickie and merge it with the short, boat-like fuselage and wingtip rudders of the Hémiptère, then give it simple tricycle gear with a free-swiveling nosewheel and differential brakes and power it with one of the liquid-cooled two-strokes like a Polini Thor or maybe an industrial V-twin four-stroke. A 16'/4.9 m span front wing and a 12'/3.7 m span rear wing with tails could each be built in one piece in a small workshop, ditto the short fuselage no more than 16'/4.9 m long spinner to sternpost. A 30"/ 76 m chord would give you 70 sq ft/6.5 m2 of wing area (30% more than a Quickie) or a slower, short-field version could have a 36"/91 cm chord for 84 sq ft/7.8 m2 (56% more than a Quickie). Someday....
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= ?
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