What are some unusual builds modifications that you know of on some Vans aircraft? For example, I’ve read about an RV 7 with a 120 gallon fuel capacity. There‘s also a thread about where someone converted an RV to retractable-gear (with lackluster speed improvements). There are also RV 4s that have been converted to single-seat.
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Unusual RVs that you know of?
- Thread starter Duncannon
- Start date
David Paule
Well Known Member
You do know about an airplane called the Rocket, right?
Dave
Dave
The Twinjag
Is it still flying?
The Twin JAG: A twin-engine RV-6A — General Aviation News
generalaviationnews.com
D Weisgerber
Well Known Member
roadrunner20
Well Known Member
I met a guy at oshkosh with a retractable RV. I believe it was a RV6.
I’ve seen wing lockers for jackets, wingtips held on with hinges, access doors for O2 and batteries, tail lights (logo lights) that shine up on the vertical stab, RV-4 with four wing tanks a STOL RV-6 with baby bush tires and VGs.. I’ll try to post some pics later..
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roadrunner20
Well Known Member
I just remembered a RV that had piano hinged bomb bay doors in the baggage compartment to be used for flour bag drops.
JonJay
Well Known Member
There’s a radial engined RV8 out there somewhere. Not sure if it has flown.
Early in my RV life, I hangared with one of the builders of a retract 4. He even had the rib dies, now lost in time…. and yes, heavy with marginal speed gains.
There has been discussions about a twin fuselage RV4, or 8, but not sure anybody has pulled the trigger.
Also, RV4 modified for round the world trip. Lots more gas!
There was a 6 out there with a rear Childs seat position.
Bob Mills has flown his Super 6 with tapered carbon wings.
Just a few.
Early in my RV life, I hangared with one of the builders of a retract 4. He even had the rib dies, now lost in time…. and yes, heavy with marginal speed gains.
There has been discussions about a twin fuselage RV4, or 8, but not sure anybody has pulled the trigger.
Also, RV4 modified for round the world trip. Lots more gas!
There was a 6 out there with a rear Childs seat position.
Bob Mills has flown his Super 6 with tapered carbon wings.
Just a few.
Fastback 4
I'm New Here
I’m flying a RV4 that I built with RV8 wings and tail.
Twin engine rv6a:
generalaviationnews.com
The Twin JAG: A twin-engine RV-6A — General Aviation News
generalaviationnews.com
The RV-9A with the Rotax 915is is definitely unique (until folsk start building more…), and its a fine airplane!
Ralph Inkster
Well Known Member
-A number of turbocharged Subarus have successfully been flown. One which I built.
-I jazzed & supercharged a Harmon Rocket II which clocked the fastest race lap times at Reno (without the benefit of a blue bottle) for a RVtype plane.
-A buddy across the taxi way from me built a stretched RV-6 with a 540 & Rocket gear legs configured for 3 passengers (plus pilot).
-I jazzed & supercharged a Harmon Rocket II which clocked the fastest race lap times at Reno (without the benefit of a blue bottle) for a RVtype plane.
-A buddy across the taxi way from me built a stretched RV-6 with a 540 & Rocket gear legs configured for 3 passengers (plus pilot).
Toobuilder
Well Known Member
My neighbor had a tri gear -4
sprucemoose
Well Known Member
There was a turboprop RV-4 around years ago. It flew, was at Oshkosh once maybe 25 years ago. I forget the company but they’re long since gone.
Their are 2 radial RV8’s flying Brian Kelly’s was the first and mine is the 2nd . Here’s a couple of screenshots pulled from a video that a fellow sent me that he took , sorry posting a video is beyond my technical limitations
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This is going to be a fun thread! I didn't know about all the open-cockpit ones (edit: or about the second radial RV-8), learned something already!
And I had totally forgotten about the Flying Tiger. That's an amazing airplane, came very close (within 380 feet!) to taking the piston-engine altitude record from the B-29.
Let's see, which ones can I think of...
Yes, Jon Johanson:
https://www.southpolestation.com/news/rv4/rv4.html
https://www.airdromeaeroplanes.com/jonjohanson.html
And I had totally forgotten about the Flying Tiger. That's an amazing airplane, came very close (within 380 feet!) to taking the piston-engine altitude record from the B-29.
Let's see, which ones can I think of...
- RV-4 with retracts (pics) (video) (oh no)
- RV-4 with retracts 2
- edit: RV-8 with retracts
- Harmon Rocket with retracts
- RV-4 with folding wings
- edit: RV-6, stretched, IO-540, two aft-facing jumpseats in the back (older post here)
- RV-6 with tapered carbon-fiber wing
- RV-7 with tapered wing and retracts (pic)
- RV-8 with one-off blended canopy (and nitro)
- RV-6 on floats
- RV-7 on floats
- RV-6 twin
- RV-8 twin (video) (oh no)
- RV-8 with radial engine
- RV-4 with 915iS
- RV-9 with 915iS
- RV-9 with diesel engine
- RV-10 with diesel engine
- RV-10 with turboprop
- Mazda RV-4, RV-6, RV-6A (and EZ, and Cozy, and Avid... Lots of info) (pic)
- Mazda RV-4 (info, pic)
- Mazda RV-4 (yes, three different ones) (video, thread, thread) (oh no)
- Mazda RV-6 (pic) (oh no)
- Mazda RV-8
- Honda RV-6A (oh no)
- Chevy Vortec RV-6
- Chevy LS1 RV-7A
- Yamaha RV-9
- Honda RV-12
- countless Subarus... (a good article)
Yes, Jon Johanson:
https://www.southpolestation.com/news/rv4/rv4.html
https://www.airdromeaeroplanes.com/jonjohanson.html
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scottmillhouse
Well Known Member
There was Affordable Turbine Power, which became Innodyn, and then I don't know what happened. Looked promising, with all the usual caveats. Used to follow them, hoping for a viable product before I finished building.
Ralph Inkster
Well Known Member
That’s my buddy Bengt Follinger’s plane. Bronze color, 16 or 18” stretch aft of the spar, canopy raised slightly, full IFR & his wife flew aerobatics in it.
A real nice stable flying plane.
I briefly flew Bob mills stretched 6 too & that was a great flyer.
The RV 4 retractable was in the hangar across from me in KEUL - Caldwell ID. He had a leg collapse at AV years ago. It was repaired and flown again by him for a short time, then sold. It was cool looking flying but in his words, not worth the trouble and added expense.
My mentor has a 6XXL. It is stretched in length and width, and new wings built about 18" longer on each side. A really nice 540 is the power unit. The coolest thing is the power canopy controlled with a key switch. I will go through some old backup files and see if I can find pictures of the retractable.
My mentor has a 6XXL. It is stretched in length and width, and new wings built about 18" longer on each side. A really nice 540 is the power unit. The coolest thing is the power canopy controlled with a key switch. I will go through some old backup files and see if I can find pictures of the retractable.
Mike S
Senior Curmudgeon
3 Years, 1 Minute, and 40 Seconds
A Mazda-powered Harmon Rocket stomps the time-to-climb record. By Eric Stewart.
www.kitplanes.com
Have pics of the logo lights? I've been thinking of doing something like this
That’s crazy! I had not heard about that one. Thanks for sharing!3 Years, 1 Minute, and 40 Seconds
A Mazda-powered Harmon Rocket stomps the time-to-climb record. By Eric Stewart.
Mike S
Senior Curmudgeon
There is a video out there of its record run-----AOA is crazy, and he holds that until reaching target altitude. Onboard video will shock you.
Shark
Well Known Member
I just saw that RV4 with retracts at Wentworth last week crumpled up in a ball, sad
That is sad. It was an interesting plane and did get attention.
Two of my favorite things combined. Rotaries and RVs.
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I finally got around to digging up my pictures of this airplane, the four-seat RV-6. When your friend Bengt noticed that I was curiously taking up-close pictures of it, he was kind enough to open the canopy (despite some rain having just moved through) and answer my questions. In any case: Very neat mod.
I have to admit that, as a structures engineer, I worry a bit about things like the impact on fatigue and flutter, and on the capability of the landing gear to withstand a non-smooth landing... and the baggage bulkhead is there for a reason... but the RV-6 is quite over-designed in many respects, so, it's probably fine as long as he and his wife are not too rough on the airplane and/or if the structure was properly reinforced
(And shoulder-belts are ideally not supposed to keep your shoulders from moving upwards, but that's a whole other story... I don't know what the solution is when the seats are back-to-back like this, I'll pay attention to the shoulder-belt arrangement next time I see one of those six-seaters where the middle row faces aft).
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I was just Googling around looking for something unrelated, and stumbled across the following photo in the March 2008 RVator...
This is the first I've heard of this one.
This is the first I've heard of this one.
That was my first thought when I saw this. Pilot and co-pilot are going to come out about 8" shorter if they ever crash this.
Roadjunkie1
Well Known Member
Jerry Fischer
Well Known Member
fl-mike
Well Known Member
Posted without further comment:
Loss of Engine Power (Total): Vanâs RV-4, N7765X, accident occurred June 07, 2018 near Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport (KBTP), Butler County, Pennsylvania
The National Transportation Safety Board did not travel to the scene of this accident. Additional Participating Entity: Federal Aviatio...
Desert Rat
Well Known Member
I think I would be more concerned about the back of my head and the back of my rear seaters head trying to occupy the same point in space in the event that things got sporty...
All of the Team AeroDynamix planes had LED lights that lit up the vertical stabilizer. It helped for seeing the planes during "night show" performances while not being too bright as to adversely affect vision.
scsmith
Well Known Member
And here it is, rounding the pylons at Reno with a Rocket-Evo on the outside. Bob Mills Sport #49. the wings are 97 sq ft, laminar flow airfoil, 24'8" span AR=6.3. The wings ended up about 10 lb heavier than original Rocket wings, but were static load tested to6.7 gs at 1700 TOGW, are probably good for 350 mph, very stout. Stall speed increased 2 kt, top speed increased 8 kt. 55 gallons of fuel and 7 gallons of airshow smoke oil. I think the second set will come in 15 lb lighter. photo courtesy of Kevin Eccles
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Thanks for your replies. <SNIP> Adding this link to this thread: https://www.kitplanes.com/rotax-anyone/
An RV 4 with a 915.
An RV 4 with a 915.
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Dugaru
Well Known Member
The second most shocking thing about that video is how bad the music is. OMG.
Kyle Boatright
Well Known Member
I saw an RV-something once upon a time that had RV-4 wings with tapered ailerons and a Continental 0300 or 0-360 attached to a (mostly) RV-6 fuselage. Pilot/owner said it flew very well.
I've seen an RV-6A with a Mazda rotary engine. The unuasual thing is that it was over 100 miles from home base and appearently running and flying well.
JonJay
Well Known Member
Two things here;
Most open cockpit airplanes are pretty slow. My Bucker cruises around 115 mph, faster than most. In an RV, cruising at typical open cockpit speeds, on that “nice” day, many will struggle with engine/oil cooling. Sure, you can go faster but…..
If you look at cockpit fairing, again, most open cockpit aircraft are tightly faired around the cockpit. The Bucker has fold down covers which fit up and around your shoulders and head. You can’t get out without folding them down. Here’s a pic, fairings up:
It is fun, no doubt, but get battered around for a while and some of that fun starts to wear thin. I have flow it for as many as ten flight hours in a day and it is exhausting, even for a few hours.
It would take a lot of work to fair an RV6 to make it comfortable, or even safe. The tandems could be done and there are a few out there.
