Questair Venture
| Questair Venture & Spirit | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Questair Venture landing | |
| Role | Kit aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Questair |
| Designer | Jim Griswold |
| First flight | 1 July 1987 |
| Status | In production |
| Number built | 62 (2011)[1] |
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The Questair Venture is an American-built kit aircraft manufactured by Questair in Bolton, Mississippi at John Bell Williams Airport.[2] It first flew on 1 July 1987.[1]
Development
Questair Inc was founded by Ed MacDonough in the mid 1980s. The Venture was designed by Jim Griswold, an engineer with Piper Aircraft and embodied technology used in the Piper Malibu. The distinctive layout of the design was intended to combine a large two-seat side-by-side cabin with rear baggage space in the smallest possible airframe, having a highly streamlined design. This resulted in good long range performance.
The aircraft is of all-metal construction using pre-formed multi-curvature panels and is supplied as a kit to homebuilders. The Venture has a complex tricycle retractable undercarriage, but the Spirit version has a fixed spatted main landing gear, the nose landing gear remaining retractable. The powerplant is a Continental IO-550-G, designed specifically for the aircraft.[3]
Operational history
The first Venture made its maiden flight on 1 July 1987, and in 1991 it was followed by the Questair Spirit which had an optional third rear seat as well as fixed tricycle undercarriage. Both types have been built from kits by amateur constructors and over 30 had been completed by 2001.[4] In 1991, a Questair Venture set a time-to-climb record for its class of two minutes, thirty-one seconds to reach 3000 meters. The record stood until broken in 1999 by the custom-built Bohannon B-1.[5]
Aircraft on display
- EAA AirVenture Museum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, second prototype Venture[6][7]
Specifications (Venture)
Data from Simpson, 2001, p. 455 and Kitplanes[1]
General characteristics
- Crew: one
- Capacity: one passenger
- Length: 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m)
- Wingspan: 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
- Height: 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
- Wing area: 72.7 sq ft (6.75 m2)
- Empty weight: 1,200 lb (544 kg)
- Gross weight: 2,000 lb (907 kg)
- Fuel capacity: 56 U.S. gallons (210 L; 47 imp gal)
- Powerplant: 1 × Continental IO-550-G six cylinder, air-cooled, four stroke aircraft engine, 310 hp (230 kW)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 305 mph (491 km/h; 265 kn)
- Cruise speed: 275 mph (239 kn; 443 km/h)
- Stall speed: 70 mph (61 kn; 113 km/h)
- Range: 1,150 mi (999 nmi; 1,851 km)
- Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (13 m/s)
- Wing loading: 27.5 lb/sq ft (134 kg/m2)
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Questair Venture. |
- Notes
- 1 2 3 Vandermeullen, Richard: 2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide, Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 63. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851
- ↑ Therese Apel, The Clarion-Ledger (27 March 2015). "Mississippi lands only Questair Venture manufacturing facility in the nation". The Clarion Ledger. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
- ↑ Simpson, 2001, p. 454
- ↑ Simpson, 2001, p. 455
- ↑ "Flying Magazine". November 1999: 35.
- ↑ Ogden, 2007, p. 561
- ↑ EAA AirVenture Museum (2011). "Questair Venture 200 – N8057J". Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- Bibliography