Wasn’t Lancair much bigger, many years ago? What happened?
Peter wrote:
Lancair has only 15 employees?
+ 1-5 unpaid poor part-time worker for every single plane 
I think Vans only has 40-50 employees altogether, and they sell maybe 50-100?? times as many kits.
Lancair has only 15 employees?
Michael wrote:
What is the performance gain ?
About 5 kts with the addition of 14 lbs of weight, if direct experience on another type is of any value. It depends as LeSving says on the cruise speed, and also how well faired the fixed nose wheel was.
Peter wrote:
But I still don’t get it; a full retractable goes a lot faster and opens up a bigger market which if certified is currently untapped (no certified BRS retractable, apart from the nonexistent Panthera). Cessna TTX sales have been really low and IMHO this is purely due to lack of BRS, since it seems to be better than an SR22 in every tangible way (a view of a frequent pilot of both that I know, who did the transatlantic flight too).
The competition is mainly these things, with emphasis on the RV-10:
Cessna TTX and Cirrus are both in a completely different level, price wise. If I were to get myself a 4 seat tourer (not remotely likely though), it would be an RV-10, a Bearhawk or this Lancair, which actually looks very nice all in all, also performance vise.
Easy, peasy to swap out the tube and lower cowl.
Indeed; one would be astonished to see a massive investment at this point, from what is basically a startup. They went for the lowest hanging fruit.
But I still don’t get it; a full retractable goes a lot faster and opens up a bigger market which if certified is currently untapped (no certified BRS retractable, apart from the nonexistent Panthera). Cessna TTX sales have been really low and IMHO this is purely due to lack of BRS, since it seems to be better than an SR22 in every tangible way (a view of a frequent pilot of both that I know, who did the transatlantic flight too).
And if you just want a very fast kitplane with uncertifiable low speed handling then Lancair has various offerings already which you can buy ready built – right up to the Evolution.
Michael wrote:
What is the performance gain ?
The RVs have a difference of about 2-4 knots on max/cruise speed between tail wheel and nose wheel versions. This is at about 150-180 knots. The faster you go, the larger this difference becomes. On this Lancair it’s probably around 5 knots or slightly more (the tail wheel also has some drag). This should be around 2-3 %. Not much, but definitely something.
Peter wrote:
Retractable nose gear only??
Funny enough I was just yesterday looking at the Lancair ES/ESP build manual and noticed that it used the same engine mount/NG support as the retract Lancair IV, but with a solid tube where the hydraulic actuator would be.
Easy, peasy to swap out the tube and lower cowl.
But is it worth it ?
What is the performance gain ?
I have once flown a 4 seat Velocity with an IO-540, and It was very impressive how you cannot really stall that thing! Before the main wing reaches a critical angle the two canards will stall … and that thing was fast and had a big cabin!
