I've been looking for a guide on visually and functionally distinguishing the different Van's aircraft models, but all I found was the "Which RV is Right for Me?" page. In the absence of a guide, I copied the 3-view diagrams from the Van's site and made a simple set of "Airfield Identification Guides for Van's Aircraft"
The first guide is the "Van's Diagram" (sorry), which shows the distribution of aircraft based on aerobatic capability, seating arrangement, and number of seats.
Aerobatic only: RV-3
Side-by-side only: RV-10 (I suppose tandem too...)
Aerobatic and two-seat: RV-4/8
Two-seat and side-by-side: RV-9/12
Aerobatic, two-seat, and side-by-side: RV-6/7/14
I revised the "Which RV is Right for Me" question sequence into a decision flow diagram.
Want 1 or 4 seats, RV-3 and -10 are the only options, respectively.
For two-seat aircraft, the aircraft choice depends on aerobatic capability, seating arrangement, size of interior, and LSA compatibility. I'm sure it's obvious to people who are already familiar with the different configurations, but I was trying to make a diagram that easily distinguishes the main features of the aircraft. Of note, I left off the /A nosewheel options which are subsets for certain aircraft.
Here's a top-view comparison of the 9 RV aircraft with approximately-correct relative size scaling.
Front-view comparison of RV models:
Side-view comparison:
The first guide is the "Van's Diagram" (sorry), which shows the distribution of aircraft based on aerobatic capability, seating arrangement, and number of seats.
![oFf8V0D.png](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FoFf8V0D.png&hash=9bde03a2adc9650abe3e1e6f5eb1fc7b)
Aerobatic only: RV-3
Side-by-side only: RV-10 (I suppose tandem too...)
Aerobatic and two-seat: RV-4/8
Two-seat and side-by-side: RV-9/12
Aerobatic, two-seat, and side-by-side: RV-6/7/14
I revised the "Which RV is Right for Me" question sequence into a decision flow diagram.
![IVlKRla.png](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FIVlKRla.png&hash=bcfc9c3c34eb2da6f572d46afda6f424)
Want 1 or 4 seats, RV-3 and -10 are the only options, respectively.
For two-seat aircraft, the aircraft choice depends on aerobatic capability, seating arrangement, size of interior, and LSA compatibility. I'm sure it's obvious to people who are already familiar with the different configurations, but I was trying to make a diagram that easily distinguishes the main features of the aircraft. Of note, I left off the /A nosewheel options which are subsets for certain aircraft.
Here's a top-view comparison of the 9 RV aircraft with approximately-correct relative size scaling.
![khuZbQq.png](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FkhuZbQq.png&hash=8445effdf8f51b5212d953b22824283a)
Front-view comparison of RV models:
![GGBpyxl.png](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FGGBpyxl.png&hash=895f23690da6adbad764c627fad9f804)
Side-view comparison:
![3nhJABk.png](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2F3nhJABk.png&hash=0cafcbc9dd7699cd2ec406021bb02a26)
Last edited: