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Ron Pearson

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Everything posted by Ron Pearson

  1. Hi Peter, You should look at the Canard Pusher, Issue 59 (April '89) and 66 (Jan '91). This gives Burt's point of view and indicates that the ruling was published Jan 28 '91 by the Federal Court in Fresno California, a unanimous verdict in favour of Rutan Aircraft Factory and directed Aviation Composites (Ivan Shaw and investors) to pay the balance of their bill to RAF of $60,000 dollars. The person you should speak to regarding the other side would be Ivan and I am sure you can get in touch with him through the Europa factory or the Europa builders groups - he is still around and doing a fair amount of flight testing, Yours, Ron Pearson
  2. I've just discovered this site although have been a Longeze builder for some time. With respect to the Lotus microlight - Ivan Shaw(Europa kitplane designer) built a pre production prototype some years after Chapmans death and had investors to produce the aircraft as a kit. He took the aircraft to Mojave to test it and they found that unfortunately it got into a stable spin. Burt considered this was due to it being heavier than the original, unfortunately when the prototype was taken out and tested under similar conditions it behaved similarly. A redesign was called for and after difficulty in deciding whose responsibility this was, it ended up in a Californian court. RAF won and the costs were already such that Ivan had to call it a day on that one. It was a pity as the friendship between two very ingenious and capable individuals foundered at the same time. The one good thing is that there probably would not have been a Europa or Liberty if the Chapman microlight had flown well.
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