Great collection of photo's Shannon. Thanks for sharing.
These are a few pages from the assembly manual that came with my kit. A member of this forum has a Lazair with the cables, but I don't remember who. I'm thanking Dale George. Ayone know who it is?
Shannon, do you have any photo's of the crop Lazair duster?
Sorry for the .pdf's my scanner won't do .jpeg's.
nostalgia
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by lazairiii » Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:41 am
Russell,
If you are referring to the "Sprayzair", that was actually the very first Lazair I ever saw. The Sprayzair company was owned and operated by a very nice gentleman by the name of Larry Whiting who lived in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. I was living in the Chicago area at the time back in the early 80's and a friend dropped by one day with a brochure with a neat little airplane on the front called a Lazair. It had Larry's contact info on it as he was a dealer as I recall. So we loaded up one afternoon and went up and had a great visit with him and listened to him tell us about how he used a few gallons of soybean oil as the carrying agent for the chemicals rather than all that water (which a Lazair was obviously not capable of carrying) and since the soybean oil sticks to the leaves better than water, it was a great choice. He had high hopes of taking this idea to third world countries, but I don't think it ever made it. An intresting side note was that he also owned an ultralight called a Nomad which was made my the same company that made the military fighters by the same name apparently.
He flew his Lazair, his Nomad and a B-24 (that he brought home from the war) from a dirt road on his farm between the corn fields he grew for Libbies. He had joined the Canadian Airforce when he was 15 (he told me he lied about his age) and flew all sorts of planes over the years.
A little long winded, but it brought back some great memories of Larry when you mentioned the Spray plane.
George
If you are referring to the "Sprayzair", that was actually the very first Lazair I ever saw. The Sprayzair company was owned and operated by a very nice gentleman by the name of Larry Whiting who lived in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. I was living in the Chicago area at the time back in the early 80's and a friend dropped by one day with a brochure with a neat little airplane on the front called a Lazair. It had Larry's contact info on it as he was a dealer as I recall. So we loaded up one afternoon and went up and had a great visit with him and listened to him tell us about how he used a few gallons of soybean oil as the carrying agent for the chemicals rather than all that water (which a Lazair was obviously not capable of carrying) and since the soybean oil sticks to the leaves better than water, it was a great choice. He had high hopes of taking this idea to third world countries, but I don't think it ever made it. An intresting side note was that he also owned an ultralight called a Nomad which was made my the same company that made the military fighters by the same name apparently.
He flew his Lazair, his Nomad and a B-24 (that he brought home from the war) from a dirt road on his farm between the corn fields he grew for Libbies. He had joined the Canadian Airforce when he was 15 (he told me he lied about his age) and flew all sorts of planes over the years.
A little long winded, but it brought back some great memories of Larry when you mentioned the Spray plane.
George
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by Shannon » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:35 am
Russell sorry no pics of the SprayZair. We heard about it back there and it was said to have worked really well. Unfortunately dealers were often the last to know about new developments going on. A certain nameless individual at the factory was very instrumental in warding off requests (pleas) for updated information. I think this played an invaluable part in the eventual destruction of the whole enterprise.
Tyler I personally don't think the foot launch claim was really that viable as even the early models had just gotten too heavy for it. At the early early development stage the Lazair may have been seen potentially as dual role Glider/Ultralight. A new and improved type of dual use Superfloater if you will. What has to be understood is that "claims" of this and that were thrown out there to spark interest with people. All the guys in the emerging UL market were doing it. I could definitely be wrong however as I just don't have any information to go on. It's really a shame that we don't have a more complete detailed history from start to finish on the Lazair but that's just how it is. We are definitely left guessing on many many things. One thing we don't have to guess about is that the beautiful wing remained basically unchanged throughout the entire evolution of the plane.
Tyler I personally don't think the foot launch claim was really that viable as even the early models had just gotten too heavy for it. At the early early development stage the Lazair may have been seen potentially as dual role Glider/Ultralight. A new and improved type of dual use Superfloater if you will. What has to be understood is that "claims" of this and that were thrown out there to spark interest with people. All the guys in the emerging UL market were doing it. I could definitely be wrong however as I just don't have any information to go on. It's really a shame that we don't have a more complete detailed history from start to finish on the Lazair but that's just how it is. We are definitely left guessing on many many things. One thing we don't have to guess about is that the beautiful wing remained basically unchanged throughout the entire evolution of the plane.
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