“Who wouldn’t want a personal fighter?” asked Rj Siegel, vice president for operations at LoPresti Aviation.
Everyone wants one, it would seem. The day the company started taking orders for the Roy LoPresti-designed Fury, with absolutely no fanfare and little publicity, it took 16 firm orders for the long-awaited plane.
“We’ve been selling one aircraft about every 30 minutes,” Siegel said. “We hoped for a strong response, but we never expected this!” The late Roy LoPresti designed the Fury to be an airplane that he wanted for himself. His “Perfect Aircraft” pays homage to the illustrious Curtiss P-40 of Flying Tigers fame, long considered the perfect shape for a fast, muscular fighter, and to the splendid little 1947 Globe Swift.
Even so, the Fury is a whole other animal: bigger, faster, aerobatic, with longer legs, fighter controls and employing modern technology.
The Fury is an all-metal, side-by-side, two-place speedster, just what anyone who knew him would expect from Roy LoPresti. In its basic configuration, behind an IO-360 engine, it delivers 215 mph cruise on 10.5 gph, or better than 20 mpg from an aerobatic, cross country airplane with a range beyond 1,000 miles. A prototype, Allison-powered version cruises at 340 mph and climbs at over 5,000 fpm, Siegel said.The first 60 aircraft have a $295,000 reserve price for previous position holders. Retail price is $355,000.
“I expected orders to trickle in over the next three months,” Siegel said after the first day of sales. “Yesterday we averaged one sale every half hour, and the rate is about the same today,” he said.
“And that’s just the beginning,” he added.
For more information: LoPrestiFury.com
