Industry | Homebuilt Aircraft |
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Founded | 1978Mojave, California, United States | in
Founder |
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Defunct | 1986 |
Fate | Bankrupt due to lawsuit |
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Products |
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The Quickie Aircraft Corporation was founded in Mojave, California, in 1978 to market the Quickie homebuilt aircraft (models Quickie, Quickie Q2, and Quickie Q200 aircraft). The original single-seater Quickie was designed by Burt Rutan and company founders Gene Sheehan and Tom Jewett. The two-seater Q2 and Q200 were designed by Canadian Garry LeGare, Jewett and Sheehan. [1] While the Q2 and Q200 were based on the original Quickie, the design was completely different. Now defunct, the company sold over 2,000 kits in its lifetime.
The Quickie's canard wing used a GU25-5(11)8 airfoil, developed by Terence Nonweiler. It suffered performance degradation at low Reynolds numbers and in rainy conditions. [2]
After losing a legal battle due to the crash of a home built aircraft, Quickie Quickie Aircraft Corporation - leaderless and fiscally strapped - went bankrupt in 1986 [3]
Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the record-breaking Voyager, which in 1986 was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling. He also designed the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, which in 2006 set the world record for the fastest and longest nonstop non-refueled circumnavigation flight in history. In 2004, Rutan's sub-orbital spaceplane design SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spacecraft to enter the realm of space, winning the Ansari X-Prize that year for achieving the feat twice within a two-week period.
The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992, then by Longview Aviation Capital in 2019; Longview revived the De Havilland Canada brand. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150s, it was developed from the Dash 7 with improved cruise performance and lower operational costs, but without STOL performance. The Dash 8 was offered in four sizes: the initial Series 100 (1984–2005), the more powerful Series 200 (1995–2009) with 37–40 seats, the Series 300 (1989–2009) with 50–56 seats, and Series 400 (1999–2022) with 68–90 seats. The QSeries are post-1997 variants fitted with active noise control systems.
The Rutan Model 61 Long-EZ is a tandem 2-seater homebuilt aircraft designed by Burt Rutan's Rutan Aircraft Factory. The Long-EZ has a canard layout, a swept wing with wingtip rudders, and a pusher engine and propeller. The tricycle landing gear has fixed main wheels with streamlined spats and a retractable nosewheel. Its predecessor was the VariEze, plans for which were first available to homebuilders in 1976. The prototype Long-EZ, N79RA, first flew on June 12, 1979.
Van's Aircraft, Inc. is an American kit aircraft manufacturer founded by Richard VanGrunsven in 1973. The Van's RV series aircraft are all-aluminum, low-wing monoplanes of monocoque construction. In 2023, over 11,000 Van's aircraft were flying worldwide, one third of the USA's experimental aircraft fleet.
The Rutan Model 54 Quickie is a lightweight single-seat taildragger aircraft of composite construction, configured with tandem wings.
The Bede BD-1 was a two-seat, single-engine, low-wing monoplane, the first design of American aeronautical engineer Jim Bede. The BD-1 was designed in 1960 as a kit-built aircraft intended for home assembly by amateur builders. Design goals included a kit price of $US 2500, including a rebuilt 100 hp (75 kW) engine and a cruise speed of 130 knots (240 km/h). The prototype N624BD first flew in 1962.
The Berkut 360 is a tandem-seating, two-seat homebuilt canard aircraft with pusher configuration and retractable landing gear, built primarily of carbon fiber and fiberglass.
The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinders, cast aluminum alloy cylinder heads and pistons, magnesium-alloy crankcase, and forged steel crankshaft and connecting rods.
In aeronautics, a canard is a wing configuration in which a small forewing or foreplane is placed forward of the main wing of a fixed-wing aircraft or a weapon. The term "canard" may be used to describe the aircraft itself, the wing configuration, or the foreplane. Canard wings are also extensively used in guided missiles and smart bombs.
Blériot Aéronautique was a French aircraft manufacturer founded by Louis Blériot. It also made a few motorcycles between 1921 and 1922 and cyclecars during the 1920s.
The Viking Dragonfly is an American amateur-built aircraft, designed by Bob Walters and produced by Viking Aircraft LLC of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The aircraft is supplied as a kit or as plans for amateur construction.
The Pterodactyl Ascender is a family of U.S. designed and built ultralight aircraft that were sold in kit form between 1979 and 1984 under Pterodactyl Limited and is currently being sold by DFE Ultralights.
The Birdman Chinook is a family of single and two-place, pusher configuration, high-wing ultralight aircraft that was first flown on 12 December 1982 and produced by Birdman Enterprises of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, starting in 1983.
The Quickie Aircraft Corporation Free Enterprise was an American experimental long-range aircraft of the 1980s, designed to attempt the first unrefuelled flight round-the world flight. The Free Enterprise was a single-engined high-winged monoplane of conventional configuration. It first flew in March 1982, but was destroyed in a fatal crash later that year.
The Chengdu J-20, also known as Mighty Dragon, is a twinjet all-weather stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft developed by China's Chengdu Aerospace Corporation for the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The J-20 is designed as an air superiority fighter with precision strike capability. The aircraft has three notable variants: the initial production model, the revised airframe variant with new engines and thrust-vectoring control, and the aircraft-teaming capable twin-seat variant.
The Rutan Model 77 Solitaire is an American, single seat, canard, mid-wing motor glider that was developed by Burt Rutan in response to the 1982 Sailplane Homebuilders Association Design Contest for a homebuilt glider. It first flew in 1982. The Solitaire was declared the winner of the contest and its unusual layout attracted a great deal of attention. For a time in the 1980s the aircraft was available as plans and as a kit.
The American Aerolights Eagle is an American ultralight aircraft that was produced by American Aerolights, introduced in 1975. The aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.
Terence Nonweiler held a Chair of Aeronautical Engineering at Glasgow University and later became Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. He has been credited with being the pioneer of wave-riding technology.
The Quickie Q2 or Q2 is a two-seat version of the unique Rutan Quickie, produced in kit form by the Quickie Aircraft Corporation founded by Tom Jewett and Gene Sheehan. Canadian Garry LeGare was involved in the design.
Media related to Quickie Aircraft Corporation at Wikimedia Commons