The Legacy is a very nice flying airplane. One of the things we wanted to do was to start with a stable platform: a plane that is overbuilt, flies nicely, and doesn’t have nasty characteristics-because anything we do to it is going to exacerbate preexisting problems. They are a difficult airplane to build and not well supported since there are just not that many of them. Flying characteristics are not exactly desirable (kind of like a modern Gee Bee), but you cannot deny speed. It was quite expensive to have the analysis done. Of course, to properly study that would be way out of the realm of what most people could afford. To be on the safe side, we added two more layers of carbon to the aft fuselage skin not so much to strengthen the tail as to stiffen it. But you could see some nodes that could have been a concern. But they only took it to the book VNE of the Lancair, not anywhere near what we were doing. KP: How was the Lancair flutter tested? In flight?ĪC: No, they actually had a German company come shake test the airplane.
KITPLANES sat down with one of the top composites fabricators in Experimental aviation, Andy Chiavetta, to talk about what’s involved in prepping a plane to race in Sport Class Gold.Ī beautiful Lancair Legacy ready to race with a full suite of Aerochia speed mods. A Lancair IV, piloted by Dave Morss, won the first race, and since then Lancairs have claimed numerous victories. This means that, on the low end, most RVs with no or minimal mods can participate, while on the high end, highly modified ships have exceeded 400 mph on the course. Inaugurated in 1998, Sport Class rules are simple: any Experimental with an internal combustion engine(s) of less than 1000 cubic inches, and capable of 200 mph, can race. Although the overhead roar of the Unlimited Class warbirds is admittedly the biggest draw of the annual National Air Races in Reno, Nevada, the Sport Class can make claims to being racing’s future: With 37 aircraft registered to race in 2015, the sport class has almost twice as many participants as any other class, and by far the greatest variety of aircraft types.
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