It has been said that Steve Wittman, through his air
racers and his Tailwind homebuilt, proved conclusively that square corners could be made to go fast.
Since Chris Heintz and his sons introduced the STOL
CH 701 in 1986 and the STOL CH 750 in 2009, they have
proved the same thing in reverse. They have shown
that square corners and straight lines can be made
to go incredibly slow (30 mph with 100-foot takeoff
runs) with their 700 series of short takeoff and landing
(STOL) aircraft. And now, Zenith President Sebastien
Heintz is proving something equally as important:
that he listened to homebuilders. At the Sun 'n Fun
International Fly-In & Expo in April, Zenith introduced
Photography by Steve Schulte
the CH 750 CruZer, a not-quite-STOL version of the
CH 750 that, as the name implies, places more emphasis on going places than leaping off in impossibly
short distances.
Sebastien said, "It's no secret that the STOL CH 750
was centered around two basic features. First, we
wanted a larger-than-normal cabin [to fit average
Americans]. Second, we wanted to provide the ultimate in off-airport, backyard capabilities through slow
speeds and extremely short takeoff and landings. We
did that by combining high-lift airfoil wings with highlift devices."
EAA Experimenter
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