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RV-Twin

I saw that too, but I just typed it in. They are for real, no malware, not sure why that came up. They have been in Oly WA for 40 plus years.
They have made a twin turbine-single prop for years now, pretty cool.
but if you are concerned, don't click on it.
 
TwinJAG Paint Complete - YouTube Search

I'm sure it's already in some of the earlier posts on this thread - but if you didn't see it, do a YouTube search of the Title.

Twin Corvair powered RV6A (Maybe 7 - don't remember).

Some other YouTube's available on first flight.

Beautifully done - but for what purpose?

YMMV

HFS
 
100% more engine expense & fuel burn for 20% more performance? No thank you. If I want that in a personal airplane, I'll buy an old BE55 or 310R
 
Light Twin

100% more engine expense & fuel burn for 20% more performance? No thank you. If I want that in a personal airplane, I'll buy an old BE55 or 310R

I’ve heard it said that on light piston twins the second engine barely overcomes its extra drag and weight. I’ve also heard that certified twins typically cost about three times as much to fly and maintain as similar single engine aircraft.

Skylor
 
I’ve heard it said that on light piston twins the second engine barely overcomes its extra drag and weight. I’ve also heard that certified twins typically cost about three times as much to fly and maintain as similar single engine aircraft.

Skylor

Friends don't let friends fly twins. :cool:
 
Twins

There have been a number of homebuilt twins, some dating to the very early days of EAA.
One of the more bizarre was a tri motor ultralight that made the round trip from Tucson to Oshkosh multiple times. Horrible looking contraption.
Many piston twins perform quite well on one engine, but not if the engine fails on takeoff.
One of the more remarkable feats with a light twin is Max Conrad's non stop from Capetown to St Petersburg with a Twin Comanche. He was almost to New Orleans when the weather fogged in and he had to turn back to St Pete. The Twin Comanche is a great airplane that many pilots are afraid of for no legitimate reason.
 
There have been a number of homebuilt twins, some dating to the very early days of EAA.
One of the more bizarre was a tri motor ultralight that made the round trip from Tucson to Oshkosh multiple times. Horrible looking contraption.
The Replogle Gold Bug, perchance?
https://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/GauthierDavidJ/7650.htm

There are a couple of (apocryphal?) stories about this airplane; I can't find where I read them now but one says something like he flew into Oshkosh (or its predecessor) and the organizers tried to deny him entry. Supposedly Paul P. himself paid the registration fee and said "he can stay".

The other story says that back in those days, guys liked to make high-speed passes down the runway. Mr. Replogle flew to one end of the runway, dropped flaps, let the wind blow him all the way back down (negative ground speed!) then pulled the flaps back up and carried on.
 
In an odd sort of way, the Gold Bug is kind of appealing. Considerably more so than the other twins pictured in this thread.

Y'all know that Van's isn't going to make a twin in the foreseeable future, right?

Dave
 
I’ve heard it said that on light piston twins the second engine barely overcomes its extra drag and weight. I’ve also heard that certified twins typically cost about three times as much to fly and maintain as similar single engine aircraft.

Skylor

I think that it depends on which twin you're talking about. On a Barron you can fly around all day long on one engine, but you're not exactly getting anywhere in a hurry. Don't get me wrong though. I love that airplane. it's super fun to fly, but it's burning twice a much fuel as a Bonanza and it's not going twice as fast.

I've flown a couple of other models that could barely get out of their own way on one engine.
 
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Twin

Yes that would be the Gold Bug. Never knew for sure if the FAA or EAA officials grounded the airplane.
Twin engine performance can come from turbos or a lot of excess power. I love the Baron but the only ones that have good single engine performance are the ones with power upgrades. The best of those is probably the little Baron with the 300 hp engines. Lightly loaded it will climb on one engine with the gear down. The stock Barons do not have good single engine ceiling. The early King Airs and many other early turboprops are not any better than the piston twins on one engine. The airplanes I always wanted to fly are the Miller conversion Twin Comanche and the Wing Derringer.
 
Why not? Makes more sense than a “Van’s Super Cub” design. A Van’s designed Wing Derringer type would likely sell better than you’d think.

What if the "Van's Super Cub" might sell better than you'd think? :)

Given the success of the Rans S-21, a Van's style bush bird might sell really well..
 
What about twin jets

It would be good if someone designed a larger fan version of the jet engines that the Sonex is using. Bigger fan could get the engine to a reasonable SFC. Then put two of those on the aft fuselage of an RV and make a mini A-10.
 
What if the "Van's Super Cub" might sell better than you'd think? :)

Given the success of the Rans S-21, a Van's style bush bird might sell really well..
I doubt it. The bush plane "Super Cub" market is pretty crowded already with a lot of companies with more experience in this area. The twin market is pretty sparse- is the twin Velocity still around?

I'm sure Van's has given this a lot more thought than I have, and they have chosen not to enter either market. At least not yet...
 
I doubt it. The bush plane "Super Cub" market is pretty crowded already with a lot of companies with more experience in this area. The twin market is pretty sparse- is the twin Velocity still around?

Maybe so, not very many metal skinned kits out there though. I'd be interested in a Van's offering in the bush plane category.

The Twin is still around, but I think the performance of the twin compared to the single then compared to the cost to throw the extra engine on it is what has killed the Velocity Twin.

Insurance is another killer on it, I think. It's pretty steep, and apparently no one wants to cover it. Of the 5 or 6 flying, one of them has been crashed twice..
 
I doubt it. The bush plane "Super Cub" market is pretty crowded already with a lot of companies with more experience in this area. The twin market is pretty sparse- is the twin Velocity still around?

I'm sure Van's has given this a lot more thought than I have, and they have chosen not to enter either market. At least not yet...

A review of a fairly new Velocity Twin is on my docket once they work a few kinks out of it but yeah - there have only been a couple of them built since we did the last review in Kitplanes - which was right when I became EIC in 2013...so not a big seller.

The problem with twin kits is basically economic - designing and supporting one is way more expensive than a single, and building one the same - so the market is too small to make the company investment worthwhile.

Paul
 
Has anyone ever taken a pair of rv4's or 8's and put them together like a f-82 twin mustang?

Once upon a time this idea became a sore spot for Van. In the "ARviator" he once described a "Twin RV-4" as the "new RV-8". He wrote an article telling how to build the twin using 2 RV-4 fuselages and the engines and landing gear from an old Piper Apache. The last line of the article said to be sure and note the date of the article.

The date was April 1st.

Even with that note, he was still bombarded with requests about the new kit.

When I showed him a picture of my RV-66, a photoshopped version of my RV-6, He looked me straight in the eye and said, "Please don't be showing that around!"

I told him that this was the perfect answer of a 4-place RV. It's a side-by-side-by-side-by-side. No one has to sit in back. (This was long before the RV-8 and RV-10.)
 
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Has anyone ever taken a pair of rv4's or 8's and put them together like a f-82 twin mustang?

Maybe a good project for the guys who built this thing?

editor_images%2F1523608162685-Yak-110-flying-1000x667.jpg


http://inspire.eaa.org/2017/11/30/because-they-could/
 
Just because any specific twin has an accident, doesn't mean that a well-designed kit twin will. However, the chances for an accident might be greater during the development process, due to the increased complexity. This has little to do with the concept itself and more to do with the execution.

Dave
 
That article was on April Fool's day...

Several people in the community believed it was true and sent non-refundable checks to Van's as a deposit hoping to get a kit. Van's has yet to sell a single kit because the cost ballooned to just under $40 million a copy. The US govt said they'll buy 400 kits for use as trainers at the Air Force Academy and Annapolis, but the price will need to be $50 million a kit with a 16 month $5 trillion maintenance and upkeep contract included.

This is all information I overheard an acquaintance speaking to someone I didn't know - about a rumor that a friend of his had heard 3rd hand from someone else that this was suppose to be a proposed collaboration between Richard VanGrunsven and P.T. Barnum starting 2/30/2021, but I imagine the 5th variant of the 3rd mutated strain of the Covid-19 virus has pushed it back to 6/31/2021 possibly.
 
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Several people in the community believed it was true and sent non-refundable checks to Van's as a deposit hoping to get a kit. Van's has yet to sell a single kit because the cost ballooned to just under $40 million a copy. The US govt said they'll buy 400 kits for use as trainers at the Air Force Academy and Annapolis, but the price will need to be $50 million a kit with a 16 month $5 trillion maintenance and upkeep contract included.

This is all information I overheard an acquaintance speaking to someone I didn't know - about a rumor that a friend of his had heard 3rd hand from someone else that this was suppose to be a proposed collaboration between Richard VanGrunsven and P.T. Barnum starting 2/30/2021, but the 5th variant of the 3rd mutated strain of the Covid-19 virus has pushed it back to 6/31/2021 I think.

I dispute the last two words of your post... "I think". Try "I imagine"... ;)
 
Building/designing a twin is easy, bolt an engine on each wing. Designing/building a good twin is hard. Designing/building a great twin is nearly impossible. Difficult to the point that I'm not sure there is a "great light piston twin". They don't perform well and are often difficult to handle with the engine out.

How many light piston twins could handle an engine failure at rotation, start the climb, retract the gear, feather the engine, accelerate to retract flaps. Then do all that while a single pilot trying to accurately fly a plane that's trying to roll over.
 
Critical time

Engine failure at rotation is a handful and sobering event. Every twin driver does a mental scan of this possible event on EVERY takeoff. My plane with gear and flaps down won’t fly at rotation with one engine and 5000 ft of runway. If it does, and you under blue line, you can’t power out of the problem like a jet cause you will experience the rollover unless you got the fortitude to reduce power which many do not.

Grim huh? Well, once you pass through the cone of danger on takeoff, everything else is just wonderful. The RV is a nice slow flying and economy sport plane but nothing compares to a fast twin. My non turbo twin has low maintenance and I self ensure with liability only on my stuff so that’s not an issue. The only downside to twin ownership for me is the runway requirement. I can’t land it in the backyard like the Maule.

Building/designing a twin is easy, bolt an engine on each wing. Designing/building a good twin is hard. Designing/building a great twin is nearly impossible. Difficult to the point that I'm not sure there is a "great light piston twin". They don't perform well and are often difficult to handle with the engine out.

How many light piston twins could handle an engine failure at rotation, start the climb, retract the gear, feather the engine, accelerate to retract flaps. Then do all that while a single pilot trying to accurately fly a plane that's trying to roll over.
 
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