On 2008-03-22 21:04:35 -0700, John said:

On Mar 22, 2:08*pm, Philippe Vessaire wrote:
William Hung wrote:
Beech Staggerwing. *Hard to tell from the pictures, do they have
doors on bothsides of the cabin?
Oh Yeah, one more question. *Anyone selling kit copies/replicas?

http://www.griffon-aerospace.com/lionheart.html

--
Volem rien foutre al païs!
* * Philippe Vessaire *Ò¿Ó¬

Sadly, the Lionnheart is no more. I was really excited about this
aircraft when it was announced. But there was one, possibly two
crashes of the only half-dozen planes flying. In one case I recall,
one of the airplanes was lost during landing on its first flight.
Apparently there were some side loads on the main gear that caused it
to fail and the plane slid down the runway, and caught fire. The
pilot got out (though his spouse was reportedly there and made
him. .. . on the spot . . promise no more ideas like that). I
remember some discussion of potential weakness in the gear and why the
pilot elected to make the first flight with full tanks. Reportedly,
the composite airframe burned to the ground leaving ash, some debris
and a radial engine.

I saw that accident at Bremerton Airport. The pilot had put more than
$450,000 into the plane; no insurance. I was standing next to his wife
when it happened. She thought he had been killed. When the plane
erupted in flames you could not see him get out. The fire started at
the right wing root and quickly spread to the whole plane. His only
injury was a minor cut on his thumb. He landed in a 9 knot left
quartering tailwind. The gear were bolted directly to the fuel tank, so
when it gave way it tore out the bottom of the fuel tank. There was
nothing left of the plane.

It was one of the most beautiful planes I have ever seen. Unlike the
Staggerwing, the Lionheart had no wing struts. It was a very clean
design. The hardwood burl panel was perfect. When it flew overhead it
sounded like a giant dragonfly.

IIRC the pilot told me that of five completed, three had crashed (his
was the third). Apparently it was too tricky on the ground. The pilot
also reported that pitch was unstable. Several videos were made of this
plane's only flight, including one by TV news, but I cannot find them
anywhere.


Kitplanes did a pilot report on it and I recall some comments about
yaw and some difficulty seeing around the nose during ground ops..
BUT, we are talking about a prototype and I suspect that some clever
work could have addressed both issues at least to some degree.
Barring those kinds of things, it was one of the most beautiful
airplanes ever . .. I would have loved to had debugged one.

Take care . . .

John


--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor