Era

Vans RV-3

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The Stits SA-3A Playboy served as a catalyst for Richard VanGrunsven, who, after modifying and improving the Playboy in 1965 (and calling it an RV-1), was further inspired to build an airplane of his own design — the RV-3.

Vans RV-3 Article

Richard VanGrunsven’s all-metal, single seat monoplane won the “Best Aerodynamic Detailing” award at the 1972 EAA Fly-in. The wings are built around a single I-beam spar and a lighter rear spar. The fuselage and tail unit are built of light alloy, and the engine is covered with a fiberglass cowling. The landing gear is the nonretractable tailwheel type with Cleveland brakes and fiberglass wheel fairings.

Feb 74

New sales of the RV-3 were suspended in 1996. However, in response to popular demand, the RV-3B with a new wing spar design is now back on the market. The empennage, fuselage, and finishing kits are essentially unchanged, however, the wing kits are new, and are available in two types: new and retro-fit. Builders also will have a choice between standard and QuickBuild wings, regardless if for a new project or retrofitting to an existing plane.

The difference between new and retro-fit spars is that some holes are left un-drilled in the retro-fit version so they may be matched to holes in the existing structure. Retro-fitting will mean removing the current fuselage center section and replacing it with the new one. While this may sound like major surgery, it is actually easier than trying to drill a spar accurately to a center section in an existing airplane.
The new RV-3B spars use four-piece construction, are gold anodized, and come completely assembled. New RV-3B wings have standard 15 gallon per side wing tanks, attached to the spar with screws and bolts so they may be removed for repair without taking a wing off the fuselage. Standard kit wing skins are not pre-punched. Bellcranks and tiedowns are now simple units that bolt on to holes already in the spar.
The RV-3B QuickBuild wings are similar in form to the RV-8/8A QuickBuild wings. They arrive with flaps and ailerons complete, tanks sealed and tested, leaving the builder only to add aileron brackets, flap braces, wing tips, and one outboard skin to complete the wing.
NOTICE: In order to operate RV-3/3A aircraft with pre-RV-3B wing designs in the aerobatic category, the owner must either complete appropriate spar Change Notices (materials provided at no charge) or purchase new wing kits. Until implementation of the appropriate spar Change Notice, kit/aircraft owners should comply with Van’s Aircraft’s previously published March 1996 flight recommendations:
“RECOMMENDATION: Until the spar modification is performed, we recommend that the RV-3 pilots immediately limit their flight G loads to a maximum 4.4 G’s; utility category. Based on our test results of an ultimate load of 7.3 G’s, a 50% over-strength margin would permit a flight limit load of 4.9 G’s at a gross weight of 1050 lbs. Since the 4.9 G’s is below the 6 G specification for the aerobatic category, no aerobatic maneuvers should be performed. Dropping back farther to utility category flight will offer an additional margin of safety.”
A logbook entry should be made prohibiting aerobatics until one of the Change Notice spar modifications is accomplished

More than 3,300 RVs were reportedly completed and flying by mid-2003.

Engine: Lycoming 125 hp
Prop: fixed pitch wood
Span: 19 ft 11 in
Length: 19 ft
Height: 5 ft
Wing Area: 90 sq ft
Empty Weight wo electrics: 703 lbs
Empty Weight with electrics: 750 lbs
Gross Weight: 1100 lbs
Wing Loading: 12.22 lbs/sq ft
Power Loading: 11.0 – 6.9 lb/hp
Fuel Capacity: 30 US gal
Baggage: 30 lbs
Top Speed: 195 mph
Cruise 75% @ 8000′: 185 mph
Cruise 55% @ 8000′: 166 mph
Stall Speed: 51 mph
Takeoff Distance: 350 ft
Landing Distance: 350 ft
Rate of Climb: 1,700 fpm
Ceiling: 20,500 ft
Range 75% @ 8000′: 640 sm
Range 55% @ 8000′: 770 sm
Speed Ratio: 3.82:1

Engine: Lycoming 150 hp
Prop: fixed pitch wood
Span: 19 ft 11 in
Length: 19 ft
Height: 5 ft
Wing Area: 90 sq ft
Empty Weight wo electrics: 703 lbs
Empty Weight with electrics: 750 lbs
Gross Weight: 1100 lbs
Wing Loading: 12.22 lbs/sq ft
Power Loading: 11.0 – 6.9 lb/hp
Top Speed: 207 mph
Cruise 75% @ 8000′: 196 mph
Cruise 55% @ 8000′: 176 mph
Stall Speed: 51 mph
Takeoff Distance: 300 ft
Landing Distance: 350 ft
Rate of Climb: 2,050 fpm
Ceiling: 23,500 ft
Range 75% @ 8000′: 595 sm
Range 55% @ 8000′: 715 sm
Speed Ratio: 4.06:1

Vans RV-1

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One Stits SA-3A Playboy builders eventually sold his project to a young aviator who rebuilt the wing, getting rid of the struts and converting it from a fabric covered wooden frame to an aluminum wing in 1965 (and calling it an RV-1). The rebuilder was Dick VanGrunsven and his first airplane has been rebuilt and will be donated to the EAA museum this summer.

VanGrunsven was further inspired to build an airplane of his own design — the RV-3.

Vans

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Richard (Van) Van Grunsven’s Van’s Aircraft, Inc. began in 1973 with partial kits for the RV-3. These were manufactured by Van himself, working in a small shop behind his house in Reedville, Oregon. Later the company moved to North Plains, Oregon, a small town about 25 miles west of Portland. After twenty years and several expansions, Van’s had exhausted the available opportunities in North Plains, so in 2000 the company moved to a new 60,000 square foot facility on the Aurora, Oregon airport. The company employed 70 people (and hundreds more in sub-contract roles) and keeps them busy producing several hundred complete aircraft kits a year and shipping them all over the world.
The RV-3’s performance gained an enthusiastic following, and naturally, many pilots wanted to share the experience with a friend. Van resisted for a while, reasoning that a bigger, heavier airplane just couldn’t perform as well as a light single-seater, but eventually he recognized the depth of the demand and began developing a two-place airplane. Tandem seating was chosen for the RV-4 because of the lower drag, superior centerline visibility, lighter weight, and overall fighter-like sportiness. It was a combination well suited to the market it entered in 1981. With performance nearly that of the RV-3 and an extra seat as well, the RV-4 became an immediate favorite and soon surpassed the RV-3 in popularity.
In the early to mid 1980s, the homebuilt market began to shift toward efficient touring, rather than pure sport airplanes. In response, Van’s developed the side-by-side RV-6. Careful design and attention to aerodynamic details resulted in a new airplane that retained the delightful handling and short field qualities of the RV-4, and despite the wider fuselage, had a top speed only 3 mph less. The trigear RV-6A was developed from the RV-6 to better fill the needs of the modern pilot. The addition of the nosewheel reduces the top speed only 2 mph.
In 1995, Van’s revisited the tandem concept and came up with the RV-8, a new design incorporating improvements learned from years of experience with the RV-4 and RV-6/6A. With a wider cockpit than the RV-4, two baggage compartments and increased instrument panel space, the RV-8 offers greater cross-country comfort without compromising the fighter-like sportiness of centerline seating. The RV-8 was designed to handle engines of 150-200 hp, and with the 200 hp IO-360 Lycoming, it sustains cruise speeds of 212 mph. Top speed is 222 mph. The RV-8A made its first flight in April 1998 and kits were available soon after.

1996-7: PO Box 160, North Plains, OR 97133, USA.

The RV-9A, a side-by-side tricycle-gear design, was first flown in December 1997. A completely new wing with a higher aspect ratio and new airfoil gave excellent low speed flying qualities and very efficient cruise. Similar in size and weight to the RV-6, it cruises at about the same speeds, but stalls several miles per hour slower. This wing permits the use of lower-powered engines, providing an alternative for those who don’t feel the need for a “bigger, faster, more powerful” airplane. Somewhat later, the RV-9 tailwheel version was developed.
In the spring of 2001 the 2-seat side by side RV-7/7A was introduced, replacing the RV-6/6A. The RV-7/7A has slightly more leg and headroom than the RV-6/6A, carries more fuel, and has a higher allowable gross weight. It will accept all 4-cylinder Lycoming engines from the 150 hp O-320 to the 200 hp IO-360. The kit incorporates all of the advanced technology that Van’s learned designing and producing the RV-8/8A and the RV-9/9A.
In 2003, Van’s ventured into a whole new world and offered the RV-10, our first four-place airplane. Designed as a true four-person airplane (the ability to carry four people is different than having four seats) the RV-10 will carry four full-sized adults, sixty gallons of fuel and baggage. Speeds and performance are comparable to the two seat RVs, and better than most four-place production airplanes.
In 2005, about 4,000 RV kits (an average of almost 130 per year for the history of the company) have been completed and flown, and thousands more are under construction. Completion rates have exceeded one per day for the last few years. RVs are flying in at least 26 different countries and are under construction in more than fifty.

The RV-2 was a wooden flying-wing sailplane. Van started construction in the early 70s but the airplane was never finished or flown. Parts of it still hang on his hangar wall. The RV-5 was a very small metal single-seater, designed by Van and built by a group of friends from a local EAA chapter. Although it flew quite successfully with a small two-stroke engine, only one was ever built. It is still in Van’s hangar and one of Van’s engineers recently surveyed it with an eye toward restoration…it may fly again.

Van Pomer 1910 Biplane

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In 1910 John Van Pomer built a single-seat copy of Curtiss A, one of the undocumented first attempts by early home-builders. Based on the then-popular Wright design, power was a 35hp Kemp engine.

A colleague, who as a teenager helped with the construction, said that he once had ridden on the wing in one of its short flights, which were always downhill and never involved turns.

The aircraft was located in a barn and recently restored to display condition at Empire State Aerospace Museum, Schenectady County airport NY.

Van Lith VI

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A one-off French-built light civil utility aircraft of the late 1950s, the Van Lith VI was a two/three seat light high-wing cabin monoplane of conventional wooden construction. The wing was a two-spar structure with plywood and fabric covering. The fuselage was of rectangular section with plywood cladding. The main undercarriage with fixed legs, wheels, brakes and tailwheel were adapted from those of the Stampe SV.4. The pilot and passengers were seated in tandem with an access door on each side hinging upward for entry and exit. The slotted ailerons could be drooped together to function as flaps. Designed and built by Jean Van Lith it was initially flown with a single fin, but this was replaced with twin fins.

One example of the design was completed. In original form the Model VI had the main wheels and wing struts of a Stampe (Nord) SV-4 biplane, one 125 hp Lycoming O-290-3 engine and a small third central fin. In this configuration the aircraft flew on 30 August 1958, registered as F-WINX. It completed it test flight program at Toussusle-Nobel on October 6, 1959, and was subsequently reregistered F-PINX.

The aircraft was later re-engined with one 150 hp Lycoming O-320, and also received with a steel sprung cantilever undercarriage, while the central fin was removed. The aircraft remained active well into the 1980s and later went to the RSA Museum, but was destroyed in an accident. This one-of-a-kind aircraft was also nicknamed the Bébé Broussard, because of the external resemblance to the Holste Broussard.

It was flown by the constructor from airfields at Toussus-le-Noble and Guyancourt near Paris. It was still registered to Jean Van Lith in 1964, but is no longer extant.

Engine: 1 × Lycoming O-290-3, 135 hp (101 kW)
Capacity: 1 or 2 passengers
Length: 20 ft 0 in (6.10 m)
Wingspan: 35 ft 5 in (10.80 m)
Height: 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Wing area: 140 sq ft (13 sq.m)
Empty weight: 1,285 lb (583 kg)
Gross weight: 2,127 lb (965 kg)
Maximum speed: 124 mph (200 km/h; 108 kn)
Cruise speed: 106 mph (92 kn; 171 km/h)
Service ceiling: 13,780 ft (4,200 m)
Rate of climb: 785 ft/min (3.99 m/s)
Endurance: 6 hr
Crew: 1

Vaniman Triplane

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Melvin Vaniman built his own aeroplane in 1906… a triplane, in fact… the first ever triplane. Made of three arched planes, supported by a frame of steel tubes, each measuring 11 meters (36-feet) in length and 2 meters 20 cm (7.2-feet) in breadth. Total surface area: 72 (square) meters (775-square-feet). 70/80 HP Antoinette engine with 8 cylinders driving a propeller with two arms placed to the rear. The length is six meters (19.7 feet). In front, two elevators (or rudders): one horizontal and placed in the lower part, serves to control the altitude; the second, vertical, placed about 2/3 of the height of the machine, controls the direction and the turning, whether one tilts to the right or the left. The function of warping the wings is made by means of an arrangement placed on the shoulders of the aviator, and the direction to the right or the left by means of two pedals. Total weight: 500 kilograms (1,102.3-pounds).

There seems to be some discrepancy over whether or not his triplane actually flew. In 1907 Vaniman appears to have given up on aeroplanes saying: “I once had great faith in aeroplanes… I am firmly set in my belief that the aeroplane will never be a cargo carrier.”

Vaniman did not participate in the 1909 Reims air show… because he was already heavily at work on his dirigible, and therefore, there is no way anyone anywhere saw him fly at Reims some 150 meters (492 feet).

The 1911-series of 75 Aviation cards from Wills’s shows the Vaniman triplane in flight… and despite the date, it actually shows the earlier machine… perhaps more for what they hoped it actually represented… a triplane…

The two machines are basically the same: a triplane, with twin-boom outriggers, a high rectangular vertical surface, a single pusher propeller. But the two Vaniman triplanes are otherwise quite different.

1907 Vaniman
1908 Vaniman

Span: 36’1″
Length: 19’8″
Weight: 1100 lb

Vaniman Akron

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5 November 1911

The original Akron was specifically built for the Sieberling-Vaniman trans-Atlantic expedition, undergoing trials at Atlantic City, New Jersey on November 5, 1911. Identified by its semi-rigid keel design, box-tail rudder and placement of the four, 2-bladed propellers.

After making changes and repairs to the airship, it was once again tried on June 1, 1912 with results less than satisfactory due to an accident with the drag rope in which Calvin Vaniman, the younger brother of expedition leader and commander Melvin Vaniman, had to climb out on the propeller struts to save the airship from wrecking.

The final test of the Akron on July 2nd ended in an explosion of the over-pressurized hull 500 feet above Absecon Bay, resulting in the deaths of all five crewmen aboard, including Melvin Vaniman and his brother Calvin.

Vaniman, Melvin

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Born in Virden, Illinois to parents George and Luisa, Vaniman was the oldest of four sons. The short fiery red-head and his siblings were raised within a Christian sect called the Dunkards (via the German Baptist church)… a sect that disagreed with the concepts of modernization and even sad no to instrumental music in the agricultural community they lived in.

They lived on a farm and Vaniman was the kid who learned how to fix all kinds of machinery – even engines on the farm.

Like many kids, Melvin Vaniman wanted to escape the small town and seek his fortune elsewhere… turning his back on farming to study music, initially at Mt. Morris College run by the German Baptist Bretheren, before gaining further study at Valparaiso University in Indiana and later at Dexter College in Iowa, where he stayed on to become a music teacher – guitar and singing – before joining a touring opera company in Louisiana in 1887.

Vaniman built his own aeroplane in 1906… a triplane, in fact… the first ever triplane.

Calvin Vaniman completed a scaled miniature trans-Atlantic passenger airship, “Atlantic No.1”, on June 23, 1912.

Atlantic No.1

It was made for the American inventor-aeronaut-adventurer Melvin Vaniman, who died alongside his younger brother Calvin and three other crew members in the airship “Akron” trial-flight disaster on July 2, 1912 near Atlantic City, New Jersey.