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Another Frankenplane Concept

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Brohawk

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
87
Still trying to decide on the one airplane to dedicate my limited resources to. The fundamental requirements are two seat, LSA compliant.

I recently discovered the Hevle Classic, which is a 2-seat Flybaby. I really like the lines of this airplane. Living in SC, we have pretty nice weather, and open cockpit puttering has a certain appeal.

While the Flybaby has been around for decades and has a loyal following, I got looking at the solid gear (the only shock damping comes from the air in the tires) and wire-braced wings. That got me thinking, which is usually dangerous.

I also like the Spacewalker II, which is very similar. The Spacewalker has cantilever wings and conventional (shock absorbing) landing gear. However, looking at photos of the Spacewalker it seems that from the elbows up you are sticking up out of the cockpit. With the Flybaby/Classic it's more like head & shoulders above the combing.

The Hevle Classic and Spacewalker have the same wingspan (28'). They both have the same empty weight (800 lbs.). You can probably see where this is going.

The idea is blending the Hevle fuselage and the Spacewalker wings and gear. Given the similarities between the two airplanes, it doesn't seem like this would be anything extreme. Experimental, yes. Way out in left field? Not so much to my thinking.

Seems like the major adaptation would be where the fuselage and wing come together. The Hevle can be built with a steel tube fuselage, like the Spacewalker. Blending the Spacewalker wing/fuselage mating structure and landing gear attachments into the Hevle fuselage doesn't seem like it would take graduate level engineering.

The biggest problem I can see is insuring a one-off blend of two airplanes that individually (as far as I've been able to discover) have pretty good reputations.

Maybe it's just another "what-if" exercise, but I thought I'd toss it out here for more experienced people to ponder.
 
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