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The Long EZ (designed by Burt Rutan) is a home-built EXPERIMENTAL
aircraft built from "scratch". With a set of plans, some fiberglass,
Styrofoam and epoxy; just about anyone
could build their own airplane. Building time can range from several
months to many
years.
Long range efficient flight was the intent of the Long EZ's design. With
52 gallons of fuel,
staying in the air for over 10 hours and travel up to 1600 miles is
possible. Equipped with
a
rear seat fuel tank, a Long EZ was flown 4800 miles. Another Long EZ
with a stock non-turbocharged engine
was flown to an altitude of 35,027 feet.
In addition to civilian use of the Long EZ, the United States Army used
the Long EZ for military research. It was equipped with a
forward-looking infrared camera and used as a
forward observation test aircraft.
If you can't afford a military fighter, the Long EZ may be the next best
thing. Its cockpit
is equipped with a semi-reclined chair, and side stick controller on the
right console, making
aerobatics and long range flight very comfortable.
All airplanes can glide; however, the Long EZ is so efficient that with
an altitude of 5
feet over the landing end of a runway, and an airspeed of 120 knots, the
engine can be
turned off, then the aircraft can climb back to an altitude high enough
to fly a 360
degree landing pattern and land on the same runway.
As a result of the Long EZ's efficiency, it has an airbrake on the
belly, and both wing tip rudders can be deflected outward to increase
drag allowing the aircraft to descend at a
higher rate.
Stalling most airplanes can be a bad thing. Long EZ's have a small wing
(called a canard) in the front of the plane. Whenever a Long EZ has its
airspeed decreased to a point that
the airplane will no longer fly, the front wing will stall and fall just
to the point where the aircraft is again flying fast enough to sustain
flight. This design feature makes the
Long EZ one of the safest airplanes ever built. It will not stall and
fall out of the sky like
other airplanes can. Because the airplane will not stall like most
airplanes, it will not
spin.
Whenever you see a Long EZ parked, the nose is on the ground. All the
weight of the engine is behind the center of gravity; consequently, when
the pilot gets out of the aircraft with the nose landing gear extended,
the plane can fall over onto the engine. Before the pilot climbs into
the plane the nose landing gear must be extended. |
