Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Two-seat light high-performance sport aircraft

Power Plant:

One 75 kw (100 hp) Continental O-200 four-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

The VariEze was designed by Elbert ‘Bert’ Rutan in late 1974. The first aircraft was built over a ten-week period in the spring months of 1975 in the USA, and was first flown on 21 May 1975. Optimum economical cruising performance was a primary design aim and, on 4 August 1975, the prototype set a new world closed-circuit distance record for its class. A second aircraft, incorporating some modifications, was built in 1975-1976 in the USA. This became the prototype for the amateur builders programme, with many hundreds of aircraft being built throughout the world. Whereas the first aircraft built had a modified Volkswagen engine, the second aircraft was fitted with the Continental O-200, which engine became more popular in later years.

The story of the VariEze began in 1965 when Bert Rutan, an aeronautical engineer and former engineering test pilot with the USAF, decided to develop an aircraft that would be impossible to stall or spin. The result was a canard delta aircraft with a pusher propeller called the Vari Viggen powered by a 112 kw (150 hp) Lycoming O-320 engine, this aircraft cruising at more than 241 km/h (150 mph). He then went on to make the design suitable for amateurs to construct with spruce and fibreglass. The result was the VariEze, which could cruise at 322 km/h (200 mph) at 14.2 km /litre of fuel (40.2 miles per Imp gal). Subsequently Mr Rutan established the Rutan Aircraft Factory at Mojave Airport in California, where components were manufactured and sold in kit form with plans. The next aircraft built was the Mini Viggen, with a 45 kw (60 hp) Franklin engine. Eventually this was renamed VariEze and was fitted with the O-200 engine.

Probably the most unusual feature about the VariEze on the ground was the parking position. Because of the rear-mounted engine, the aircraft was tail-heavy when level and unoccupied, so the aircraft was parked on its nose with the nosewheel retracted to prevent it from toppling back on the propeller. This also obviated the necessity to chock the aircraft in the wind, and placed the propeller at a convenient angle and height for hand-starting.

It has been said that the VariEze is a brilliant, if unconventional, example of the aeronautical engineer’s art, and this machine, with two persons on board and its full fuel load of 105 litres (46 litres in each wing tank and 13 litres in the fuselage tank [a total of 23 Imp gals]), cruising at 75% power at 299 km/h (186 mph) at 12.73 km/litre (36 mph), had an exceptional range for an aircraft with an all-up weight of only 444 kg (890 lb). In 1982 VH-DED (c/n W91) flew from Derby, WA to the Latrobe Valley, VIC and return at a true airspeed of 276 km/h (171.5 mph) consuming 21.8 litres (4.9 Imp gals) per hour and covering a distance of 8,710 km (5,412 miles) in 33 hours 2 minutes.

Plans and some components have been available for amateur builders, and more than 20 have been completed in Australasia, including VH-DED (c/n W91), VH-EZC (c/n N100), VH-EZH (c/n N65), VH-EZI (c/n V43), VH-EZK (c/n N69), VH-EZM (c/n N73), VH-IWF (c/n W90), VH-EZP (c/n S35), VH-EZX (c/n N138), VH-HPC (c/n V68), VH-EZJ (c/n N102), VH-EZV (c/n N104), VH-EZE (c/n N177) and VH-LEP (c/n N177), which later became VH-EZE. New Zealand examples have included ZK-EZE (c/n AACA/325), ZK-NCD (c/n AACA/436) and ZK-ZAP (c/n GRF-1).  One Australian example VH-DED in Western Australia has been fitted with a small Turbomeca turbojet.