The engineer / designer

Rutan is certainly one to admire, though there were and are a lot of engineers that did amazing stuff behind the scenes...Roc. I mainly admire him for building a business that creates jobs where people can be creative and build stuff. Welcome to Idaho, Burt.

Another Idahoan we should not forget is Dean Wilson. Avid Aircraft which spun off many other similar designs as well as his Eagle crop duster, the Ellipse, and the Explorers. He only had a 9th grade education, but he was smart. A lot of engineers, including myself, could learn a lot from his practical approach.

I don't think Burt or Dean were perfectionists but they built planes that flew and met their mission requirements.

 

Agree with that.


BJC

 

From his design/autobiographical book "Flying On Your Own Wings":
"Straight out of university [ETH Switzerland], and to avoid being enlisted for the Algerian war, I started work at Aerospatiale in Paris on the SST (later called the Concorde)--in the flutter department."

He then worked at Avions Robin for nine years on metal updates to the Jodel aircraft, the HR100 and HR200. He also worked with deHavilland of Canada while building the Zenith line and designed the horizontal tail for the Dash-7 regional commuter.

 

Thanks for that. It was Victor Bravo who recalled that Heinz worked on the Concorde.


BJC

 

Chris Heintz's Zenith 200 was just a all metal version of the all wood Falconair F-12 that I built. And the F-12 was designed as a heavier and faster Jodel for larger engines. The 200 had different wing with less area and not using the bent wing design of the F-12. My plans also included the tri-gear with similar construction. The F-12 can use the Z-200 cowl and canopy. The Z-200 is listed at 900 lb EW and my F-12 was 937 lbs EW . The F-12 had 2 EW's, one was 1600 lbs for +9 G's and 1800 lbs was for 7.5 G's if I remember correctly. Plans showed a third seat .
An F-12 with an Lyc -320 will cruise at 160 mph with a cruise prop. I had a climb prop and it cruised at 150 mph with a GW ROC of 1700 FPM. There has been an F-12 with a L-360 but it cruises up close to the 187 mph red line. I accidentally had my F-12 to over 200 mph one time coming down from altitude and not paying attention to my true airspeed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenair_CH_200
In my opinion, Chris Heintz has designed some very good flying airplanes.

 

Fred Weick was also in on the Cherokee. Wonder if the new Piper 100 uses any of that work. Or if one gets all new for the 259KBux.

 

Sorry about that. Old brain, new forum