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An RV-15 & RV-16??

ccast04

Member
I just watched an interview Kitplanes and Van's conducted about the current demand and quickbuild kit situation. The main discussion is about the primer situation with the QB kits.

However, at the 5 min mark Rian Johnson casually mentioned they doubled the engineering team size to work on the RV-15 AND RV-16. I think everyone had an idea a -15 was coming but a -16 might be news to the community.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHhwwlx0a_s
 
Honestly with how popular bush flying has become lately with folks like Trent Palmer and Mike Patey on youtube, I wouldn't be surprised if the -15 and -16 aren't high wing low and slow type planes.
 
oh the threading has started!!!

...of course Van's 'Total Performance'...would demand that one of them be a centreline Rotax twin....one engine, with slats and flaps and fat tires for touring sandbars....then fire up and un-feather the 2nd powerplant, tuck in the slats and head home at 150 kts!
( oh, wait, that's kind of the Double-Ender!...I wish someone would make THAT thing an RV kit!)
 
Since I just turned 60 I think I’ve got one more build left in me, something to the tune of , take some Porsche 911 DNA and some from a SIA Marchetti 260 ,,, now we have a aerobatic four place grocery getter, that does 220 knots and paint it green to satisfy all the tree huggers 😂
 
Or maybe....ya know....Rian reads VAF and likes to yank people’s chain..... ;)

I thought about that and with the increase in the engineering team and fabrication equipment, it appears that there may be some actual movement in a new design.

That being said, while a twin or turbine sounds nice, at the end of the day it’s gonna be a high wing bush plane. This will corner the market on the kit plane business and provide good growth for next decade and beyond. VAF has already established a market demand and a high wing would be a great hangar mate for the other RVs. In the meantime, save your pennies so you can be the first to order. 12 month lead time for us old folks is eternality......
 
Hmm, let's think things through a bit...

* The techniques of the RV-14 (greater accuracy, better hole size) are being applied to the RV-10.
* The RV-8 some years back was upgraded to pre-punch
* IIRC, the RV-9 and RV-14 have the same outer mold line aft of the baggage compartment.
* RV-15 and RV-16 mentioned in the same breath

My guess is that the -15 and -16 will be upgrades/replacements for the -7 and -9, much the same aerodynamically but easier to build, things like wiring harness available, etc.
 
All this himmin and hawhin. I think I'll just go out and get in my Nissan 350Z drift car and feel some real GGGGG's
I can fly at 200 mph and not feel it. But, just get up to say 40-50 MPH going sideways and rubber burning all the way at 7-8000 rpm and it is a real gas. Talk about an adrenalin rush and tryin to stay on the track.
Spent to long racing cars even if they were mostly junkers in the past.
I think Van's should keep doing what they are doing. Building the great kits for us to play around with.
My three cents worth Art
 
They were talking openly about a -15 well over a year ago. I figured that meant an announcement was close then, since it seems likely that anticipating and RV-15 will affect sales of the current models. The lead time is so long right now, there’s really no reason not to wait and see what the new kits are.
 
The RV-10 was a big leap into the unknown for Vans. It may be the first really successful 4 place kit airplane. The RV-10 spawned the RV-14, same airfoil, shorter wingspan, 2 place version. The RV-10 is closing in on the RV-9(A) in terms of flying airplanes, 980 vs 1150 and was introduced a couple of years later than the RV-9(A).

So Vans has two very successful modern, in production wing (with custom airfoil) and empennage for 2 place and 4 place airplanes.

My guess: the RV-15 and RV-16 will be high wing, all aluminum airplanes using the RV-10 and RV-14 wings and empennage. The will be strut-less (Cessna Cardinal and 210) for efficiency and will retain the approximately 4:1 speed range and cruising speed of the current model RV-10 and RV-14. These models already have good STOL capability.

The market for these will be new and existing Vans airplane builders who do not like the fabric covered steel tube fuselage of the Bearhawk series of high wing airplanes.
 
4 engines, so a Rotax powered Dash-7? Not sure if that's a dream or a nightmare. Be rigging throttles for days...weeks. I can see the posts now "FWF kit #3 and I'm fed up with baffles, only 1 more engine to go!".
 
I think I got it:

RV-15: high wing bush plane side-by-side

RV-16: high wing bush plane tandem.

(I don't think a -A model is in the cards though just based on the mission of these two)

Developing two completely different aircraft simultaneously would be a lot to bite off. There would be a lot of shared parts/design here. With both offerings, it completely opens up this market to Vans.
 
The May Kitplanes magazine had an article about the future of homebuilding. It included an interview with Rian Johnson, from VANs, where he advocated "something called LPA, or Light Personal Airplane...a category for larger-than-LSA aircraft that would be built like an E-LSA or produced complete like today's S-LSAs..."This category is a chance to revolutionize the kit industry.""
Although this category is not yet a reality, it seems to be on the FAA's radar.
A design like this would be something I, if I was a kit manufacturer, would be looking at and planning for.
Seems to me that the RV-7, RV-10 and maybe the RV-8 would be good platforms to redesign as the RV-15 or RV-16 in anticipation of the new rules. Even if the new rules didn't pan out, they would be great steps forward for kit builders who seem to be wanting more complete kits all the time.
Just a guess on my part.
 
Yikes! I mis-typed on that one. I meant to say a -A is NOT in the cards.. because of the mission (bush flying). Yes, a nosewheel can turn things ugly quickly.

Of course, this is all speculation on my part.
 
Convertible

Putting a nose gear on a Cub is like driving a convertible with the top down and the windows up! It may not be against the law, but it should be.

Ouch. That was my favorite way to drive to work on freezing cold days. Heater on full blast.
That was a Honda S2000. Now I have two Zuks. I pull the doors off. :D
 
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