Evans VP-1 Volksplane
| VP-1 Volksplane | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Evans VP-1 Volksplane at Pima Air and Space Museum | |
| Role | homebuilt light monoplane |
| Manufacturer | Homebuilt |
| Designer | William Samuel Evans |
| First flight | 1968 |
| Produced | over 6,000 sets of plans have been sold |
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The Evans VP-1 Volksplane is an American designed aircraft for amateur construction designed by aeronautical engineer William Evans of La Jolla, California.[1][2]
Design and development
The VP-1 is an all-wood, strut-braced open-cockpit single-seat low-wing aircraft designed for amateur construction. Designed to be simple to build and safe to fly, performance and appearance is of secondary importance. To make construction simple marine grade plywood is used for the slab-sided fuselage structure.[3]
The Volksplane first flew in 1968. The wings were designed to be detachable to allow the aircraft to transported by road.
The VP-1 was designed specifically to utilize a modified VW Type 1 automotive engine from the VW Beetle.[4] The fuselage is built in a warren truss arrangement where the exterior plywood takes the diagonal stress loads, therefore eliminating the diagonal members to maintain simplicity. The vertical and upright members are staggered to keep the joints as simple as possible. The wing is of a forward and aft blank spar design which uses stack-cut plywood ribs of equal size in order to keep construction time down. The ailerons are hinged directly behind the aft spar. For simplicity no flaps are provided. The wings and tail surfaces are fabric covered.
Because the design lacks aerodynamic refinement it requires more power than most aircraft its weight to fly. Some builders have altered the fuselage design to improve the aerodynamics and aesthetics.[3]
The design was developed into a two-seat version, the Evans VP-2, with an enlarged cockpit.
Variants
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- Evans VP-1
- Single-seat homebuilt[3]
- Evans VP-2
- Two-seat homebuilt
Specifications (VP-1 - 40 hp engine)
Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1982–83[5]
General characteristics
- Crew: one
- Length: 18 ft 0 in (5.49 m)
- Wingspan: 24 ft 0 in (7.32 m)
- Height: 5 ft 1½ in (1.56 m)
- Wing area: 100 ft² (9.29 m²)
- Airfoil: NACA 4412
- Empty weight: 440 lb (200 kg)
- Max. takeoff weight: 750 lb (340 kg)
- Powerplant: 1 × Volkswagen air-cooled flat-four, 40 hp (30 kW)
Performance
- Never exceed speed: 120 mph (104 knots, 193 km/h)
- Cruise speed: 75 mph (65 knots, 121 km/h)
- Stall speed: 40 mph (35 knots, 65 km/h)
- Rate of climb: 400 ft/min (2.0 m/s)
References
- ↑ Popular Science: 99. June 1970. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ Purdy, Don: AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition, page 152. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. ISBN 0-9636409-4-1
- 1 2 3 Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12, page 101. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X
- ↑ Flying magazine. August 1974. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ Taylor 1982, p. 542.
- Jackson, A.J. (1974). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 2. London: Putnam. ISBN 0-370-10010-7.
- Taylor, John W. R. (1982). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1982–83. London: Jane's Yearbooks. ISBN 0-7106-0748-2.
See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Evans VP-1. |
- Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era