California Microwave (CMI) CM-44

The CM-44 was designed and built by Scaled Composites for California Microwave (CMI). The aircraft was a canard pusher which carried 700 lbs of electronic gear for surveillance. It was test flown by Michael Melvill in April 1987 and found to have a several winglet induced yaw problem that Scaled could not fix. Hollmann contacted CMI and promised to fix it. Dr. Ilan Kroo from Stanford, set up a lattice element model of the CM-44 and fixed the problem and improved the design. Hollmann at ADI designed new wings, winglets and canard for the CM-44. High Tech Composites built the molds and parts.  It was test flown by CMI and found to be significantly better than the original design.