Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/126719
Panther Sport Prototype Completes First Flight Sport Performance Aircraft LLC successfully flew its prototype Panther Sport aircraft for the first time on April 8 at Kay Larkin Airport (28J) in Palatka, Florida. The mid-size, singleseat, low-wing, aerobatic airplane flew for approximately 20 minutes and experienced no issues with controls, performance, or handling, according to the Panther blog. Dan Weseman, SPA president, spent several years designing the Panther and built the airplane over the past year. Panther is an alumi- num and welded steel airplane with folding wings. After passing inspection on March 29, the first taxi occurred on April 2. Designed and built at SPA headquarters at Haller Airpark in Green Cove Springs, Florida, the Panther is what Dan and Rachael call the "Burger King of airplanes" for its "have it your way" options. The aircraft's versatility allows pilots to choose the plane's engine, landing gear configuration, wing length, safety features, open or enclosed cockpit, and kit or plan/kit combo. The prototype's engine is a 120-hp, 3.0-liter Corvair built by William Wynne of FlyCorvair. Other engine options will include Continental C-85, O-200, O-240, Lycoming O-235 to O-320, ULPower, Jabiru, or VW. Eventually, Dan and Rachael hope to sell this aircraft as a kit. There will be three wing lengths/airframe configurations: Sport, LSA, and Long LSA. You can learn more about the Panther on the company's Facebook page, FlyWithSpa. Final Push Is On for Bugatti 100P Racer Project About two and a half years ago Scotty Wilson, EAA 572551, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, traveled to Oshkosh to examine the original Bugatti 100P racer that's on display in the EAA AirVenture Museum. The project now is nearing completion in his hangar at Tulsa, Oklahoma. be pulled out of the hangar for the first time. The props were designed by Swedish propeller theoretician Jan Carlsson and fabricated by Rupert Wasey at UK-based Hercules Propellers. Two 200-hp Hayabusa motorcycle engines will power the craft, Wilson said. "Ninety percent done with 90 percent to go," Wilson said in early April. "It's very close to done. We might be able to roll the plane out of the hangar in mid-June." He hesitates to pin a date to anything; but it's reasonably possible Wilson's airplane could do taxi-testing and even a first flight before the end of the year, but no earlier than the fall. "We are certainly in the final push," he said. "This airplane is an extraordinary machine. It really makes one appreciate the genius of de Monge. He did it himself—just one guy—which makes it all the more impressive." Follow along as this project heads for the finish line at the Bugatti 100P Racer project Facebook page. Wilson's first flight would be a true maiden voyage for the futuristic airplane. Designed in the 1930s by famous automaker Ettoré Bugatti and engineer Louis de Monge, the original Model 100P never got off the ground. As the German army advanced on Paris in June 1940, it had to be disassembled and whisked away so the advanced technology didn't fall into enemy hands. Wilson calls it "the most historically significant airplane that never flew." One of the plane's crucial—and most complex—components is the gear box, which has finally been finished after two and a half years of design, revision, and production. It is set to arrive in Tulsa the first of May from S&J; Engineering in Hinckley, United Kingdom, which agreed to take on the project after another firm pulled out. Wilson hopes to have the 200-pound gear box installed and the propellers on soon, at which time the airplane will EAA Experimenter 9