Windecker Eagle - flygplanet i plast
Som ett slags proof-of-concept hade man först byggt Windecker X-7 som hade fast landställ och roder i aluminum. N801WA var registreringen och planet provflögs i oktober 1967.
The Windecker Eagle was the first all-composite aircraft to be certificated by the FAA. It was designed by Leo Windecker of the Dow Chemical Company to prove the concept of composite materials for significant structures. It first flew in January 1969, powered by a 285hp Continental engine. It is a four seater, with cruising speed of 205mph, range of 1,230 miles, gross weight of 3,400lb, length 28 feet 5 inches and wing span 32 feet. Like many pioneering aircraft it was only modestly successful, only nine being built before the company ran out of money. One was evaluated by the US Air Force as the YE-5, to test the stealth characteristics of composite materials. All pilots of F-117s and F-35s, and constructors of Vari-Ezes, Europas and the like, have Windecker to thank for blazing their trail.
The 1970 economic recession period was a difficult time for the aircraft industry and Windecker had already invested more than $20 million in the development of the Eagle. When he could no longer find financial backers, the company closed its doors. In 1977, Gerald Dietrick bought the assets of Windecker and, in 1979, formed the Composite Aircraft Corporation to build the Eagle I. Dietrick's company never went into production because the Eagle was in direct competition with the well-established metal models from Beech, Cessna, Piper, and Mooney. Because of its revolutionary construction, it was not possible for Dietrick to price the Eagle as low as the Beech Bonanza, which had been in production for several decades ($112,000 vs $95,000). Also, during the 1980s, the light airplane market experienced a severe depression and because of a surplus of aircraft and product liability litigation that halted production of several light aircraft models. Shortly though, composite aircraft arrived and stayed on the aviation scene.
Själv minns jag en artikel - bland alla nummer av Flyghorisont som farsan hade - där det snygga flygplanet prydde dragarbilden. Utan att tveka är just denna som är den långt bakomliggande anledningen till dagens blogginlägg...och därför hamnade även just den bilden överst här. Artikeln var en översättning gjord av Torgil Rosenberg som finns här för närmare studium...
Jag hade egentligen nästan helt glömt bort Windeckern, men häromveckan dök denna artikel upp (vilken gav mig en liten aha-upplevelse). Det är nu många år sedan en Windecker Eagle senast flög, men till sommaren ska det visst ske igen. Avslutande citat kommer från en artikel i Air & Space Magazine i november 2011:
Today, general aviation’s best seller is Cirrus’ all-composite SR22. Leo Windecker lived to see it all and wasn’t surprised. “Aluminum,” he told me in 2007, “was never a very good material to build airplanes out of anyway.” In April 2009, Ted Windecker acquired the Eagle’s type certificate from Composite Aircraft Corporation, which had owned it since 1977. “We are raising capital to return an updated Eagle to the market,” he says.
