Flight International - August 18, 2015

GENERAL AVIATION

ightglobal.com 18-31 August 2015 | Flight International | 23

Legacy 450 gets

certification nod

SHOW REPORT P24

P

rolific aircraft designer Burt
Rutan has emerged from a
brief retirement to unveil a new
seaplane design he claims can
seat two people, fly up to
2,100nm (3,890km) non-stop,
survive a 10g impact on rolling
seas and fit inside the one-car ga-
rage of his lakeside home.
Any other designer might invite
scepticism with such claims, but
Rutan has a reputation for defying
limits. His notable firsts include
the non-stop, round-the-world
flight of Voyager, the first private
suborbital flight of SpaceShipOne,
endurance record-setter Global-
Flyer and 43 other novel designs.

Indeed, Rutan credits his own

record for driving him to make a

new seaplane – named the

SkiGull – that exceeds the range

and efficiency of most land air-

craft, but which is flexible enough

to operate from water or land.

“I did Boomerang and Voyager.

Why would I not do something

for a seaplane that was just a little

better?” Rutan said at the Experi-

mental Aircraft Association’s Air-

Venture fly-in in Oshkosh, Wis-

consin, in late July.

The design of the SkiGull

began with Rutan listing all of the

annoyances about seaplanes that

he wanted to overcome.

Some were as simple as install-

ing shock absorbers. Noting that

most seaplanes land on rougher

surfaces, Rutan says incredulous-

ly: “Why have people not put

shock absorbers on a seaplane?

They’re the guys that need it!”

For enough range to fly non-

stop from San Francisco to Hono-

lulu, Hawaii, Rutan designed the

SkiGull with a 14.3m (47ft), strut-

braced wing and what he calls the

world’s most efficient aircraft en-

gine: a Rotax 912iS.

Another Rutan irritation with

seaplanes is the lack of power,

with an engine-out on take-off es-

pecially risky if it is necessary to

clear trees on the shore. So he is

installing an auxiliary electric

power system that can provide an

extra 30% thrust on take-off.

But Rutan emphasises that he

has not yet flown the SkiGull. An

attempt to assemble the aircraft

ended three weeks before the Air-

Venture event, when he realised

the skis needed redesigning. ■

AMPHIBIAN STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC

Burt Rutan floats

seaplane concept

Legendary aerospace designer emerges from retirement to
unveil the SkiGull – his vision for a new amphibious aircraft

Design features include

shock absorbers and a

strut-braced wing

Phil Weston/EAA

Swiss Excellence

in Business Aviation

AMAC Aerospace Switzerland AG

Henric Petri -Strasse 35

4051 Basel, Switzerland

Telephone + 4 1 58 310 31 31

[email protected]

http://www.amacaerospace.com

Corporate and private aircraft maintenance,

refurbishment and completion services, aircraft management

and charter operations.

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