by huronflyer » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:02 pm
First of all I have no right to consider redesigning an airplane, especialy one
as lovely as the Lazair. Nevertheless, occasionally I ask myself what if...
One 2 place Lazairs are rare, so I have thought of using different fuse structure, with the same wing, engine, boom assembly. One recent thought was the "Earthstar Odessey"
seating (side by side - slight tandom) might be able to keep same wing area and narrow
fuse seating area to reduce drag...CofG is an issue, but not as pronouced.
For 2 place or single place I am concerned about one engine performance and
asymetrical thrust; therefore, and adaptation of the Toucan inline pwr mode really
interests me. A former Lazair dealer tells me how beautifully his flies - one of his is
forsale by the way. But they are RARE and a bit out of my price range. So making a VW
version out of Lazair parts might be an interesting project.
If you are not familiar with the Toucan it has wings made with similar construction priocess,
but not the same wing. It has two rear booms, tractor - pusher pwr. The original had Rotax
277s but the two I have seen have 503s on 1400 floats. It will fly with two persons onboard
on one engine. It will TO on wheels with 2 people and one engine (but not on floats).
Why would I change a good thing? Probably won't. But check out CYEL on Google Earth.
Cheers,
drh