MOORESVILLE, N.C. — More than 30 years after it was damaged and rendered unairworthy, N4198G, a Windecker Eagle, has been repaired, restored, upgraded, returned to active status, and flown.
In the hands of test pilot Len Fox, the Eagle was guided onto the active runway Dec. 6. Fox advanced the throttle on the first all-composite aircraft certified by the FAA in 1969 and lifted off for a brief flight.
Windecker Aircraft CEO Don Atchison, recounting Fox’s debrief said, “Though it hadn’t flown for over 30 years, the Eagle had the look, smell and feel of a new aircraft. It handles very smoothly with inputs from the controls and power being met with predictable responses. Visibility and ergonomics are excellent. The panel is all new, state of the art technology. It’s a good, clean design that would pass certification today and the Windecker Aircraft team’s workmanship is top notch.”
Fox, along with Hubie Tolson, will log more than 25 hours in the Eagle before the aircraft is disassembled and shipped to China where it will be used for demonstration and marketing purposes. Wei Hang, owner of the Windecker Aircraft production rights, will begin producing copies of the Eagle for domestic distribution at facilities across China.
“The Windecker Eagle is an historic aircraft,” said Atchison. “It was the first all-composite design that was certificated by the FAA. That has led to a lot of composite activity in aviation in North America and Europe. It was a trailblazer in its time and will deserve that title again as it becomes a familiar part of the emerging general aviation industry in modern China.”
It is a pleasure to see N4198G take to the air again. The Windecker project proved it could be done and the innovation that Doctor Windecker (and crew) utilized in this aircraft is still on the leading edge in many ways.
I stored N4198G for years in the states for the estate after the owner passed away. I treated her as if she was mine just knowing that someday she would fly again. It hurt to pack the two remaining planes here in Cincinnati Ohio to send them off to Canada and seeing how they were treated there is troubling to say the least. It hurts to see these planes head overseas now however the difference this time is the plane IS flying again and has been modernized to the extent possible.
Congratulations to Ted Windecker, the restoration crew and the new owner Mr. Wei Hang.
I would rather the plane be built in China than sitting in a landfill somewhere in Canada which “almost” happened!
The Cirrus aircraft comments seem unfounded to me. I work on them and find them to meet the needs of many aviators. They are small by comparison to the Eagle but they capture a market of the new generation aviators looking to go fast and have nice equipment. Maybe that is the new downward trend mentioned above?
The construction techniques used on the Eagle are unique to the Eagle and just imagine what version 2 will be capable of!
We could save our GA economy here, but Americans are not willing to invest in GA anymore. We (American investors) have the money to do everything the Chinese are doing, buying up and saving some of the GA companies, or turning them around. The reason they aren’t, is that they are all investing in the short term investments, they want large returns in a short time. Who wouldn’t from an investment standpoint? If I had my choice of “get rich quick” vs “maybe not get as rich, or possibly break even and maybe even go broke slowly”, I would choose the quickest path as well, as most would.
I have made my living in GA for 25 years now, I too am shocked that a nice brand new single can command 600-800K, or over a million for a Malibu. However, I don’t think 60-80 is realistic for a new airplane. A nice new pickup truck is nearly 50K. To design and develop a new single engine today, get a POC flying and get a POC type certified is a 40-60 million dollar proposition. There is no way to recapture that investment 60-80K at a time, not enough volume and the engineering is just too costly.
Every expense imaginable has increased exponentially in the past 25 years. Part of the problem is the way our society thinks. For instance, water fountains used to be everywhere, and the water was free, however, some bottled water is more expensive than gasoline, but people will still buy the bottled water. Over $1for a QUART of Aquafina, that is $4 per gallon for otherwise free water.
If you had the seed money to start a small airplane company (1/2 of 1% of the population would buy your product) , but knew you could get $4 per gallon out of bottled water (which the masses will drink), what would you do?
Somehow, I think we are partly responsible for where we are in GA today.
The Windecker restoration was a fun project. It last flew in 1984, it was landed gear up and has been sitting ever since. Anyone could have bought the project plane and the TC, but nobody did until recently. It took us 18 months and more than the price of a new Cirrus to get it restored to what it is today. Again, anyone in the US could have purchased this and funded the restoration, but nobody did.
I think the engineering in the Eagle 1 is more remarkable than the GA community will every come to appreciate.
When we got the airplane, nearly every metal part was completely corroded and unairworthy, but the composite structure survived just fine. We were apprehensive at first about the integrity of the composite structure, so, we built a test fixture and loaded up the structure with flight loads (sort of a whiffle tree, but not exactly). It held just fine. Some of the composite parts did not survive due to mishandling, but in the end, the only primary parts that we had to replace were flaps and ailerons. Keep in mind that this plane sat outside, in the elements in central Canada for almost 20 years. Imagine if it were properly stored in a hangar.
And for the record, N4197G, Windecker serial number 6 has been in storage at the Smithsonian for years, but its not on display.
With any luck, the WIndecker brand will be back in production some day.
Great points! I’m in the software industry. We are transforming all industries and as a pilot, I’ve long wondered why it takes so long for innovation to be adopted in GA. I believe with a few changes in FAA regs and new innovations like 3D printing, we can make USA GA great again! And we can conceivably hit much lower price points in the $80-90k range for 4 seater. Who’s with me? 🙂
Actually, it should be in production and flying, instead of that useless POC, that Cirrus defrauds the flying public with.
By the sound of your comment I can fairly safely guess you have not flown one of the products from Cirrus. The SR aircraft are a very well thought out and well built design that certainly does not deserve the flak your giving it.
That being said in my opinion Cirrus is one of the top contributors to ending general aviation as it should be. Marking and making the world think that $600k-$800k is a normal price for a 4 place piston single is absurd. In my option $60k-$80k should be the price of a brand new 4 place single.
I have flown the Cirrus, many times, along with 122 other makes, models, and types, as PIC, and another 35 as SIC, I find them to be twitchy, not fun to fly, more dependant on technology than pilot skills, and I totally agree with your statement that it is a strong contributing factor to the end of GA as we know it, and sadly not for the better.
I’m glad we are in agreement John. I’m slowly brainstorming ways to see how we can turn GA around even it is baby steps at a time.
Thirty years ago, we could have easily turned around the graveyard spiral that GA is in, but the alphabet groups and the manufacturers would not step up, make the hard choices and take the steps needed to build it up. Now I fear that the attrition rate, the disastrous state of the support infrastructure and the overall malaise in the GA community as a whole has advanced the decline to a point beyond mortal methods to reverse.
There are three huge hurdles that need to be overcome in order to save GA in the United States. they are, in no particular order;
1) The cost of certification. It’s way too high, and takes too long. Adding significantly to the per-unit cost of aircraft.
2) Federal regulations. You would think it would be a catalyst to innovation, but instead it stifles it. Especially where new equipment for older aircraft are concerned.
3) Product liability. With ambulance chasers around every corner, looking for someone – with deep pockets – to hold accountable for accidents, whether they’re responsible or not, also adds significantly to the per-unit cost of aircraft.
Unless those three can be addressed, GA will continue to slip away.
Years ago I ferried a 2002 Cirrus SR22 from Southern California to Australia and I had nothing but trouble with it. I was afraid it was not going to make it. I have ferried hundreds of planes all over the world from little planes like this Cirrus to Boeing airliners but this Cirrus was the most problematic by far. I had problems with the doors the sunvisors and the engine just to name a few things. Ok I know the engine is on Continental when it has problems, but that was the only time I have ever had problems with the Continental IO-550P engine and this one only had 750hrs on it. Maybe it didn’t like being in a Cirrus airframe? I hope they are making Cirrus planes better now days. Comparing a Cirrus to one of the composite Cessna planes is like comparing a tin can to a tank! Or should I say there is no comparison!
The Windecker Eagle SHOULD BE in the Smithsonian Air And Space Museum because it started a whole technology of aircraft construction the the entire industry has embraced including none other than the Boeing Company as well as Airbus.
It always was a beautiful, fabulous flying airplane, with only one slight flaw, it did not want to slow or come down. It was a trailblazer and set the stage for composite aircraft, too bad it is going to be lost to us, hopefully it will gain the recognition and market in China, that nearsightedness in this country did not allow.