Allanon

...just mathematically improbable. Like the idea that someone in the Saint Louis area *might* be flying down to Florida between March 13th and March 17th to watch the Space Shuttle launch and *might* possibly have room for two passengers... like I said, possible but highly improbable. Let me know if you happen to be in 0.00000001th percentile...

How they decided these materials was through an extensive process of material testing (this is one of my MANY jobs at work). You can test different material properties with very simple set-ups that will tell you the following and more: Core shear, skin shear, core crushing, overall tensile strength, overall shear strength, modulus of elasticity, poisson's ratio, bending strength, as well as a lot of others. However, these tests take time and a lot of patience and control. For one, you need to make sure each test sample is EXACTLY the same!! Two, each test must be run under the same conditions. Three, you need to know a little prob and stats to reduce the data into a workable allowable. Overall, the tests can be very time consuming, but they will get you the comparison that you need... or you can just trust Rutan on his original design and stick as much to it as possible...

Good... because that's exactly what we're doing. We've got a design that we've pitched to Adam Wick and he likes it. We're finishing up the design phase now and are about to move into a prototype phase. From there, we'll see what happens. Do keep in mind that the idea of having our own shop is probably 5 to 10+ years in the future...

No, but I do wake up in the middle of the night wanting to design and build my own aircraft. Yes, I'm an aerospace engineer with a lot of design background. I've not personally built an aircraft before, but the other guy who is in on this has previous experience building kit planes at Wicks (we live right down the road from them ) Money for me is not as much of an issue. Yes, I would like to make money... but as the old addage goes, a man making minimum wage that loves his job is happier than a man making six figures doing something he hates. I'm not saying I hate my job... but I've always wanted to design and build my own aircraft and I feel like any potential I have is being wasted where I'm currently at.

A friend of mine and I are tossing the idea around of opening a composite shop where we could build kit planes. We would design, build, and test them. I guess the question is this: is this a pipe dream or is there a real market for something like this? ~~Allanon

yeah... talk about "Dream Job"... I hear they're hiring though...

Scaled Composites huh?? Very nice!! I'm a stress engineer for a Bombardier completion center near Saint Louis. My primary job is to show FAA compliance on all major modifications, repairs, and installations for Bombardier Challenger 604, 605, G5000, and 850, as well as various Falcon, Gulfstream, and LearJet aircraft. To put this is much more simplier terms... I make sure things don't break

Backseat, I'm not worried about. My wife is about 5' 11" and weighs around 135 (don't mention to her that I said that) and she'll probably be the tallest person to ride back there. I've also thought about just going balls to the walls and building the Cozy Mark IV. I like the 2+2 config and it seems much more roomier... but who knows at this point, right now I'm a guy with a dream... but a guy can always dream can't he?

I'm pretty big myself... 6'4" around 255 lbs. Is this to little a plane for me?

How much of the kit are you missing??