Rutan Quickie
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| Quickie | |
|---|---|
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| Type | amateur-built airplane |
| Manufacturer | Quickie Aircraft Corporation |
| Designed by | Burt Rutan, Tom Jewett and Gene Sheehan |
| Status | kit production completed |
| Number built | 2000+ |
The Quickie is a light single seat homebuilt aircraft designed by Burt Rutan. One of the dozens of unconventional aircraft penned by Rutan for the general aviation market, the original Quickie is Model 54 in Rutan’s design series.[citation needed]
The Q2 is a two seater Produced in kit form and marketed by the Quickie Aircraft Corporation founded by Tom Jewett, and Gene Sheehan. Over 2000 kits were sold before production ended.[citation needed]
Appearing at first glance to be a modified biplane or canard design, the Quickie is in fact a tandem wing aircraft; both the front and rear wings are full airfoils. The forward wing is technically a canard, fitted with elevators, but it provides about 60% of the lift. The aft wing serves as horizontal tail, although all pitch control comes from the forward canard. Highly efficient, and of composite construction, the Quickie and Q2 are typically radical Rutan aircraft designs.[citation needed]
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[edit] Development
The Quickie was designed in 1982 as a two-weekend homebuilt for the aspirant builder by Burt Rutan. The Vari-Eze, though a popular successor to the Vari-Viggen, still was a project likely to take a builder several months to construct, and in some cases several years.[citation needed]
The design of the Quickie was optimized to be a minimal number of fiberglass components : the fuselage/fin, front wing and rear wing. Integration of components was a high priority, and the engine choices very wide, though again in a quest for simplicity, the prototype used a VW Beetle flat-four engine as a power plant.[citation needed]
Rutan was later to state that the design was meant to echo the famous X-Wing of Star Wars, making the Quickie a very attractive as well as exciting aircraft for a first-time homebuilder.[citation needed]
[edit] Variants
There are three main versions of Rutan's design.
- Quickie has one seat and is powered by a 20 horsepower (15 kW) engine[citation needed]
- Quickie Q2 has a 64 horsepower (48 kW) Volkswagen engine and seats two side by side[citation needed]
- Q200 (also seating two) is faster than the Q2 with a 105 horsepower (78 kW) Continental O-200 engine and uses a different airfoil for the canard[citation needed]
Both the Q2 and the Q200 can be constructed as Tri-Qs, featuring tricycle rather than conventional landing gear.[citation needed]
[edit] Specifications (Quickie Q2)
Data from QuickieBuilders[1] and Western Canada Aviation Museum[2]
General characteristics
- Crew: one pilot
- Capacity: one passenger
- Length: 19 ft 10 in (6.05 m)
- Wingspan: 16 ft 8 in (5.08 m)
- Height: 4 ft 5 in (1.35 m)
- Wing area: 67 ft² (6.22 m²)
- Empty weight: 490 lb (222 kg)
- Useful load: 510 lb (231 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 1,000 lb (454 kg)
- Powerplant: 1× Revmaster 2100-DQ converted auto-engine, 64 hp (47.7 kW) at 3,200 rpm
Performance
- Never exceed speed: 200 mph (322 km/h)
- Maximum speed: 180 mph (290 km/h)
- Cruise speed: 140 mph (225 km/h)
- Range: 550 mi (885 km)
- Rate of climb: 1,200 ft/min (6.10 m/s)
[edit] Gallery
 Q2 in flight |
 Q2, canopy up |
 Q2, side view |
 typical Q2 builder-designed instrument panel |
[edit] See also
Comparable aircraft
- EAM Eagle X-TS
[edit] References
- ^ What are the specifications for a Q2?. Quickie Builders Association. Retrieved on 2006-04-14.
- ^ Quickie 2 C-GIKP. Western Canada Aviation Museum. Retrieved on 2006-04-14.
[edit] External links
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