"RST Engineering - JIm" wrote in message
m...

That was Burt Rutan's particular gift to the state of the art.

A soft foam piece that was easy to develop into complex shapes,
and stayed in the part as a stiffening core.

Or remove the foam completely after layup, if it's not needed.

"Mold-less" construction.

Forgive me for jumping in to a forum to which I have no first-hand
experience other than supplying parts to you all who are building these
things.

I've been around the Rutan brothers since the vari-viggen and you are
correct. That was Rutan's gift to the art. And, there were a HELL of a
lot of Vari-EZ and Long-EZ aircraft made in what appeared to be a very
short time ... months, not years.

And when Rutan stopped supplying plans for those easy to build aircraft
somehow the time to construct took a quantum jump. Don't know why, just
observed the phenomenon.

Jim

I don't know why with any certainty; but, during the time that he was
supplying plans, Burt Rutan also went on tour and demonstrated his method of
rapid construction. It seems possible that his departure from the field
sinply allowed the preceding "dark age" to resume.

Peter