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Why Van's Aircraft There's only a few manufacturers that fit into our requirements (statements solely reflect our personal opinions / impression): Lancair: Rolls Royce among experimentals. Expensive, even the basic model. All composite construction, requires more skills and temperature control. Many more sold than actually flying. "Traditional" cruise type aircraft. Cozy / EZ's (canard pusher type aircraft): Intriguing concept. Awesome flight characteristics / controls. No aerobatics due to canard design and high approach speeds which don’t allow for short field operation. Pusher configuration very unsuitable for unpaved runways as well as noisy. Long building time and even with prefabricated parts, which are now available, a lot of “custom work” to do; most canards are still more or less plans-type projects. Composite construction. EZ's not even officially available any more (Rutan) … Glasair / New Glasair: Runner-up to Van's in terms of performance / price / mission profile. But also composite meterials… And the big issue here: The company disappeared for a short time, builders were left without parts, some lost money. After some time, follow-up company took over. About a 1000 kits have been completed at the time of our decision. and the award goes to: VAN’S AIRCRAFT! First of all, the Van's RV series perfectly fit into our profile! With some additional advantages. The icing on the cake was the fact that at the time of our decision over 3’500 Van’s RV airplanes were flying! This is something that really tells a lot about a kit. A huge community worldwide, an outstanding reputation for great support and help during (and after) construction throughout this community favor the odds for final success. Available online resources, aftermarket parts available and builder websites just speak for themselves. The stellar perfomance FACTS (which were achieved by thousands of builders and not only with the company testbed on PR stunts), the flight characteristics and feel of these aircraft which are consistently described as excellent by so many people only added to the positive impression! You will also find a lot of former US air force pilots or airline pilots in the RV community. Furthermore, the safety record of Van’s aircraft is pretty respectable! And it is a lot more representative than for a kit of whom about 20 aircraft are currently flying. (for details: www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp) Generally, RV’s may not be as “beautiful” or sleek to look at compared to a Lancair for example, we admit. But RV’s are designed to fly and that's what counts when you sit inside eventually. The concept of Van’s might also be considered as conservative – it is an all aluminium construction with straight lines, direct controls via pushrods and fixed gears (all models). But such an overwhelming number of people flying completed RVs just keep telling that exactly these are the ingredients to a very fast, dependable and fun airplane. Make sure you visit www.vansaircraft.com. |
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