HOW OF BUILDING AN AEROPLANE
1 David Rose
LOCATION: San Diego
PLANE: RP-4
David Rose obviously built the overpowered RP-4 for speed. The experimental counter-rotating propellers, inspired by a NASA project, run at an impressive 4800 rpm. Rose can connect both propellers directly to their engines without heavy reduction gearing. The props can change pitch for maximum efficiency at any speed. "It's a drag-racer frame with skin on it to keep the wind out," says Jerry Baer, a former pilot who helped Rose build RP-4.
PLANE: RP-4
David Rose obviously built the overpowered RP-4 for speed. The experimental counter-rotating propellers, inspired by a NASA project, run at an impressive 4800 rpm. Rose can connect both propellers directly to their engines without heavy reduction gearing. The props can change pitch for maximum efficiency at any speed. "It's a drag-racer frame with skin on it to keep the wind out," says Jerry Baer, a former pilot who helped Rose build RP-4.
Jake Stangel
2 Cory Bird
LOCATION: Mojave, Calif.
PLANE: Symmetry
In 1989, Cory Bird was a shop fabricator at Scaled Composites, famed aviation designer Burt Rutan's company, when he decided to use his knowledge of composite construction to build aeronautical art. "I wanted to show what I could do," he says. Over the next 14 years he conceived and created a two-seat airplane he called Symmetry. The sleek aircraft can reach 284 mph at 3000 rpm. The labor of love proved so exquisite that it won a Grand Champion prize at the Experimental Aircraft Association's big air show in Oshkosh, Wisc. Today, the 53-year-old Bird, now a project manager at Scaled, is hard at work on another design for a plane that will carry two and land on shorter airstrips than Symmetry.
PLANE: Symmetry
In 1989, Cory Bird was a shop fabricator at Scaled Composites, famed aviation designer Burt Rutan's company, when he decided to use his knowledge of composite construction to build aeronautical art. "I wanted to show what I could do," he says. Over the next 14 years he conceived and created a two-seat airplane he called Symmetry. The sleek aircraft can reach 284 mph at 3000 rpm. The labor of love proved so exquisite that it won a Grand Champion prize at the Experimental Aircraft Association's big air show in Oshkosh, Wisc. Today, the 53-year-old Bird, now a project manager at Scaled, is hard at work on another design for a plane that will carry two and land on shorter airstrips than Symmetry.
Jason Madara
3 Mark Stull
LOCATION: Christoval, Texas
PLANE: Lucky Stars
Homebuilt airplane pilots are motivated by more than aerodynamics. Mark Stull built Lucky Stars with a 4.5-foot-diameter ring tail. It took some clever engineering—and some hair-raising test flights—to make it work. Stull added a hydraulic damper to ensure that the tail didn't swing too far to the side, and balanced the tail by adding weights to the ring. He then moved the seat forward to maintain the craft's center of gravity.
FOR THE VIDEO AND MORE INFO CLICK HEREPLANE: Lucky Stars
Homebuilt airplane pilots are motivated by more than aerodynamics. Mark Stull built Lucky Stars with a 4.5-foot-diameter ring tail. It took some clever engineering—and some hair-raising test flights—to make it work. Stull added a hydraulic damper to ensure that the tail didn't swing too far to the side, and balanced the tail by adding weights to the ring. He then moved the seat forward to maintain the craft's center of gravity.
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