Lancair Takes Wraps
Off Its Evolution Turboprop
Wed, 25 Jul '07
Taking Personal Aircraft To A New Level
Safety and performance. Lancair has been doing it for 23 years, delivering
high performance piston and turbine powered aircraft kits.
Surrounded by press and fans, Lancair unveiled Evolution at AirVenture.
Engineering on Evolution began three and a half years ago. Lancair President Joe
Bartels (above) makes no apologies for the length of time spent on the design.
"We did not take the fast track approach with this design as many manufacturers
have done so in the past."
The Evolution is a product of technology, it was developed entirely through
Computer Aided Design created by Computer Numeric Code machining and evaluated
by Finite Element Analyses.
Some of the self imposed goals to meet; more space, meet FAR Part 23
standards, including a 61kt stall speed while upholding the Lancair reputation.
Lancair's goal according to Bartels is to "maximize uniformity and safety while
still providing a kit that our customers enjoy building."
Some of the safety features include BRS parachute system, energy absorbing
seats and AmSafe Aviation airbag seatbelts. "We took the time necessary to come
up with the best and safest four-place turbine aircraft today," says
Bartels.
Under the cowling lies a Pratt and Whitney PT6A-135A allowing speeds in
excess of 385 mph true using the four bladed Hartzell prop. All this while
sipping only about 35 gallons of Jet A per hour. The range of Evolution with 45
minute reserve at max cruise is 860nm and 1290 at economy cruise. Evolution will
be ready to take you places after about 1,000 hours of build time.
The Evolution is a true four seater. Four occupants, 140 gallons of Jet A,
150 lbs of bags and still be below 4,300 lbs. Lancair engineer Tony Ong comments
on the 39 cubic feet of baggage space and even more with the rear seats removed
"if you wanted to camp back there you could." The pressurized baggage door
allows for the addition of the family pooch and no mess from the packed
toothpaste tube. The instrument panel can be a Chelton EFIS or Garmin
G-900X.
The first five kits were ready for sale here at AirVenture and by the end of
the Evolution's debut only one was left. Construction has started on the initial
five and are scheduled to be delivered before year end. After that the tooling
and fixtures will be sent off to the Philippines for full production run.