I just love it when people send me photos of interesting aircraft they have spotted (so please send yours – info@essentialpilot.co.za), but this one really made me do a double take and want to clean my contact lenses! My first reaction to the sender was ‘What on earth is it??’. I could just not figure out which was the front end and which was the rear…
I unfortunately did not get to see this one up close, but it is certainly worth reading up about, simply because it is very weird in design, which is cool, and it does fly! It is a Rutan VariEze, which makes it sound ‘very easy’ to fly, but I have some doubts. What I can tell you is that it is an American home build, composite canard, and it is defined as ‘high performance’, so I am guessing it is pretty fast and agile.
A quick internet search revealed the key attraction of this aircraft – it has great range at economy cruise at around 739NM, and comfortably cruises at 140kts. The intention of the canard was to prevent the stall as far as possible (a common problem with US home builds), and it does this effectively – the stall speed is a very low 48kts.
It can only carry one crew member, who should probably be of smaller proportions, so how useful this aircraft is I am not sure, but I am just guessing, it could be fun to fly!
If you have flown the VariEze, or know someone who has, please tell us about it in the comments below…
