Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

[First time Juke]

I go for Questair Venture:

http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepQuestairVenture.html

Not because of the looks , but the performance for money factor.

My second is single seater Quickie Q-54 it had 1,6 gallon per hour consumption and did 100 mph on cruise settings.

http://www.quickheads.com/q1-introduction/

[GeoffS]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

This one gets my vote...

http://www.polenspecial.com/polen_special.htm

https://www.leica-geosystems.com/common/shared/downloads/inc/downloader.asp?id=6369

Cheers,

Geoff S.

[retroaviation]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

Yup. The Polen Special gets my vote too.

Gary

[Carbonprop]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

Sharp's NXT hands down.

[Sully]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

Dennis Polen was overwhelmed with mail from eager fans around the world,....

.....and I was one of them.
I still think I would like to build one.

Sully

[Skyracer]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

Add my vote for the Polen Special.

Have had a couple of opportunities to see that airplane. It is a beautiful design and the workmanship top notch. First time I saw it was at an EAA flyin in Spokane (SFF). It landed there, taxied up to the pump and took something less than 9 gallons for the 45 minute flight from Portland OR.

Sorry, can't get too excited about the Questair Venture having seen several of the flying eggs cracked at Reno.

[Jason S.]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

I go for Questair Venture:

http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepQuestairVenture.html

Not because of the looks , but the performance for money factor.

My second is single seater Quickie Q-54 it had 1,6 gallon per hour consumption and did 100 mph on cruise settings.

http://www.quickheads.com/q1-introduction/

Check out the picture on this page http://www.quickheads.com/q1-introduction/, that engine in the background looks mighty familiar.
Oh, and I’ve always liked the Quickie design, different but cool at the same time.

[First time Juke]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

Dudes..and gentlemen,

I read the NTSB reports and I gotta say...Questair ( 23 ) is almost as bad in safety record as BEDE-5b ( 37 )..Lancair ( 16 ) and Glasair (11) are with least accidents of those four.

Questair had lotsa problems with landing gear and fuel systems.

Can I still change...I go for a White Lightning ( 4 ).

http://www.studiomoonart.com/whitelightning.htm

[Speed Quest]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

The Questair Venture suffered early on with landing gear problems due to it's compact, somewhat uncovential design. However Jim Griswold, the lead designer, continued to improve the design long after he was no longer involved with the company and today the aircrafts ground handling is comparable with other high performance aircraft. There is also a fixed gear model that has had sucess at Reno racing against retractable gear Glasairs and SX 300.
The early fuel system was designed to meet a proposed FAA design criteria, which required flapper valves and a small reservoir. Fuel starvation could result if a number of components did not work optimally together. This system has been all but abandoned, with a simpler, reliable system recommended.
An active owners and builders group offer constant info and advice on the aircraft, recommendations that are valuable for building and maintaining this speedster.
Please note that this aircraft is a 20 year old design, specific to carry 2 people cross country efficiently and effectively while offering a stable IFR platform in flight, and yet it is still reasonably competitive at Reno when in the mix with the new crop of purpose built racers.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

Dudes..and gentlemen,

I read the NTSB reports and I gotta say...Questair ( 23 ) is almost as bad in safety record as BEDE-5b ( 37 )..Lancair ( 16 ) and Glasair (11) are with least accidents of those four.

Questair had lotsa problems with landing gear and fuel systems.

Can I still change...I go for a White Lightning ( 4 ).

http://www.studiomoonart.com/whitelightning.htm

You asked what we thought was the MOST IMPRESSIVE sports plane, not the safest.


I'd have to go with the VariEze, the first sports plane that was REALLY something different in comparison to the standard front wing/rear stabilizer/front tractor engine layout, and yet proved successful (look at how many have been built over the years).

[laminar]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

Sharp's NXT hands down.

hear hear

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

This is a good thread.. I'd like to propose a Sport that has yet to be.. "built".. A Thunder Mustang with clipped wings, modified scoop, turtledeck/cut canopy, a "mini-me" Strega, so to speak.. When you think about how much speed was gained in the Mustang with just the scoop mod (something like 18MPH according to Kerch) THAT airplane would be almost too awesome to contemplate...

Don't think John Parker is going to do those mods with the upcoming BTII build, but... .

[Inverted]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

I cant believe the EZ series of aircraft werent on the top of peoples lists.

[Apteryx]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

I'll throw some in:
The Cassutt has been around for a long time, been built in large numbers, and has served sport, aerobatic and racing duties, quite admirably.

The RV series has been built buy many first time builders, and has a great balance of speed and performance and utility.

The GP-4, Lancairs, EZ's, Polen, NXT, White Lightning... are great "Cruisers" but not as versatile as what I think a "Sport" aircraft should be. (IMHO)

Paul

[Pete]

Re: Most impressive sports aircraft ever ?

Falco F8.L

This one again falls into the cruiser genre, but it's aerobatic, fuel efficient, pretty fast (200+ on 180HP) and one of the most elegant airplanes ever built.