I fixed the link to the article for you, Paul.
I fixed the link to the article for you, Paul.
I remember well when Dean talked about building the Ellipse. He said he was going to build a 4 seat airplane that you could fold the wings on like an Avid, trailering it to and from the airport with just a hitch that attaches to the tail, and it was going to haul 1000 lbs for 1000 miles at 150 mph, climb at 1000 fpm, all on a 150 hp lycoming with a fixed pitch prop. Sounded like a tall order to me, but lo and behold, about a year after talking about it, his prototype Ellipse proved it was possible.
That airplane looks pretty common and conventional at first glance. But the closer you look at it, the more innovative and uncommon it is. I think it is just a beautiful, and incredible design. It's just too bad there aren't more around.
For any of you that missed the earlier link on the Ellipse, here's an excellent article on it
http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepEllipse.html
It's an interesting read.
thanks paul for the wilson and explorer stories . i was able to locate the pictures that i was able to take that morning . in the pics it does appear that the spoilers are deployed .
chuck
kitfox IV 1050
912ul warpdrive
flying B , yelm, wa
Those are great pictures.
And yes, it shows well those dreaded spoilers being engaged. I heard Explorer 2 had the spoilers on it too, but to avoid having a problem like Explorer 1 had they made it so you couldn't move the throttle ahead without first disengaging the spoilers.
Spruce Goose 2?