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Open your book of superlatives for Lancair’s first built-for-a-turbine kit.
BY DOUG ROZENDAAL
As a kit company, Lancair has remained price and an estimated finished price fore, this is not the definitive flight
true to a specific course: create airplanes of $650,000 to $1 million. Sans wings report of a finished product. Instead, it’s
that are fast and sexy. Fast comes from a and tail, the mockup looked dispropor- the premiere look into the potential of
lot of power, sexy comes from the com- tionate, and the round windows had the this exciting new airplane.
posite curves. When the Lancair IV essence of Charlie Brown’s Snoopy. First
arrived in the early 1990s, it was a hot flight was on March 21, 2008. Fabric of Society
rod by any standard. With 98 square The Evolution arrived at AirVenture Composite design allows airplanes to
feet of wing on a 2900-pound airplane, ’08 with a slick paint scheme and a one- slip through the air. If there is a flat
it demanded respect from its pilots. Pres- piece windshield. Snoopy was returned piece of skin anywhere on the airplane,
surization necessitated air conditioning, to the doghouse, and the now much I never saw it. Lancair General Manager
then more fuel, and then came a turbine more compelling Evolution was greeted and Evolution designer Tim Ong is a
engine. The IV platform evolved to and by oohs and aaahs. mechanical engineer who specialized
beyond its natural limits, and it’s fair It’s worth noting that the airplane in fluid dynamics, and it shows. The
to say the Propjet is more burdened by is a prototype and is therefore a work airplane looks as though it would barely
more compromises than most. To move in progress. Many of the systems are in disturb the air molecules as it nudged
forward, Lancair had to start again. need of fine-tuning, and while the pres- them aside and then neatly put them
Joe Bartels acquired Lancair Interna- sure vessel has been tested, the airplane back where they were.
tional from founder Lance Neibauer in has not been flown pressurized. There- The airplane appears at peace with
2003. “We knew from day one
there had to be another prod-
uct,” Bartels said. “The IV-P was
a great airplane, but it was on
the other side of prime.” While
stopping short of saying that the
airplane was too hot to handle
for the average customer, Bartels
acknowledged that the company
needed an airplane that could be
flown comfortably by the aver-
age pilot in the target market. “It
takes a current pilot to fly the IV.
It was time for a change.”
The “change” is called the
Evolution, and the mockup was
revealed at AirVenture 2007,
carrying a $250,000 base kit
The precisely engineered quadrant does not extend downward, allowing legroom
underneath for a cross-cockpit leg stretch on a long flight.
will be moved to the space between the groove. Think of the locking mecha-
seats for easier access on subsequent nism in an air hose coupler. Hydraulic
models. Five rocker switches and the pressure holds the gear up, and releasing
gear switch on the glare shield make the pressure drops the gear in the event
for a remarkably clean and uncluttered of a malfunction.
cockpit. The maingear is trailing link, and the
The autopilot is a TruTrak Sorcerer. A link is attached to a massive triangular
yaw damper is planned instead of rudder trunnion. The gear sports the same tire
trim. Light airplanes with large engines as on the nosewheel of a T-38 Talon
require substantial rudder trim adjust- military jet. The nosewheel on the Evo-
ments with power and speed changes, lution is a 500x5 conventional general
and here the electric elevator and aileron aviation tire and casters with rudder and
trim are controlled by a “coolie hat” on differential braking.
the side stick. The landing gear is elec- The wings are almost entirely wetted
The mirror finish on the wing demon-
strates the quality of the mold tooling and
tric/hydraulic, and three identical actu- and hold 84.5 gallons each. The pro-
the attention to detail in the Lancair Evolu- ators move it up and down. An internal totype has a manual left/right/off fuel
tion. Much of the wing is wetted with fuel, collar inside these cylinders locks the selector, but in the final kit this will be
140 gallons standard, 170 optional. gear down using balls that fall into a an automatic system that switches from
LANCAIR
3. A massive gear trunnion and trailing link
gear soften the effect of the high-pressure
EVOLUTION
Price ........................................................................... $250,000
jet tires, making firm arrivals into pilot-
pleasing greasers.
Estimated completed price .................... $650,000 - $1 million
Estimated build time.......................................................... N/A
Number flying (at press time) .................................................1
2 4. Long ailerons provide nice roll feel and
the effective Fowler flaps generate lots
Powerplant.........................Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-125 of lift that lowers stall speed to an FAR
Propeller......Hartzell four-blade, constant-speed, feathering Part 23 compliant 61 knots at max gross
Powerplant options............Various PT6As, Lycoming TEO-540 weight.
AIRFRAME
Wingspan ......................................................................... 37 ft
Wing loading ...................................................... 29.05 lb/sq ft
Fuel capacity..............................................140 gal std, 170 opt
Maximum gross weight ................................................4300 lb
Typical empty weight....................................................2350 lb
Typical useful load.........................................................1950 lb
Full-fuel payload, standard fuel ...................................1005 lb
Seating capacity ......................................................................4
Baggage capacity ............................................................225 lb
PERFORMANCE
Cruise speed ........................................... 389 mph (338 kt) TAS
25,000 ft, 39 gph
Maximum rate of climb .............................................4000 fpm
Stall speed (landing configuration) ............ 70 mph (61 kt) IAS
Stall speed (clean) .......................................86 mph (75 kt) IAS
Takeoff distance ............................................................1000 ft
Landing distance...........................................................1000 ft
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Evolution continued
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