Our good friend Albert Dyer sent in these photos with a quick note: “EAA Chapter 241 in DeKalb, Ill., had the pleasure at one of its monthly chapter meetings of having Ole Sindberg fly in to give a talk on building, flying and maintaining the Prescott Pusher, which currently is the only airworthy example. Visually stunningly inside and out, the aircraft just oozes sex appeal. A Lycoming 0-540 moves four people across the country in speed, style and comfort.”
I agree with Chuck Bowser. With the engine at the rear, I wonder what the stall characteristics would as there won’t be an induced airflow from the propeller to impact the tail plane. So also the recovery technique with shift CG.
Besides, how efficient would those propellers be, as they are at the rear and do get a good bite at the air in front. But the airplane is beautiful.
As I remember this aircraft design, it never became popular because of its flying qualities.
One word: WOW..!
I like the tail number.
This interesting looking airplane makes us drool at its potential. However, being a flight test engineering, I wonder about its flying qualities. That part dissolves when you conduct a thorough flying quantities evaluation. Many airplanes have met he beauty and exciting requirements, however, the flying qualities criteria has been their demise. How does this beauty fly. Is it stable both staticly and dynamicly stable. My experiences are based on Military Flying Qualities Specifications, MIL-F-8785 or MIL-STD-1797. The Military has used these specs to guarantee that the airplane is safe for its intended purposes. That is not the case for many experimental aircraft.
The love of an aircraft based largely on looks, however, the designer does not do the flying qualities evaluations required to determine the vehicle’s stability and control characteristics. If you look at the above mentioned specifications and have a mathematical understanding of the testing standards which have been developed for years, you will understand. Beauty is only skin deep. It would be wonderful if flying qualities test instrumentation were cheap. (Aircraft manufacturers would spend far less money during testing.)
This is in response to Chuck’s comments:
You are right about flying qualities. As designed the Prescott Pusher is indeed a lousy airplanes with a number of problems. I became aware of this only after I was about 60% done with building mine, so my choice was to either give it up or try to find solutions to the problems. I choose the latter – driven in part with my problem with having spent a lot of money for nothing if I choose the former.. Over the next several years, I flew other finished Prescotts and identified what had to be done. I learned a lot about stability, performance, available engines, propellers, weight and balance, part 23 requirements etc. Eventually I took EAA’s course of flight testing, which was great. In the end I developed over 100 modifications addressing all of the issues. I now have a very satisfying airplane with good performance and normal stability in pitch and roll and by adding a yaw damper, also in yaw.. But it is an airplane that requires flight training because it is so different and requires different techniques for both take off and landing. Once airborne it is a joy to fly – flies straight without rudder input except in the pattern with the gear down.
The mods include things addressing safety, performance.and flying qualities. One safety item is a much improved fuel system, which provides dual fuel sources pumped directly to the engine during all critical phases of flight. Performance is improved by an O-540 driving an MT CS propeller, and flying qualities are improved by changed elevator gearing and the above yaw damper. (Most airliners require yaw dampers, so this is not much of an issue) In each category there are a number of mods – I have mentioned only the major ones.
Mr. Sandberg
You did a great job. Aircraft certification involves the same level of dedication. It involves knowledgable intelligence. It is this effort that punctuates flight testing. Welcome to our world of engineering flight test development. You should modify your resume and advertise yourself, especially the Air Force Material Command
or the Naval Air Systems Command. Our country can use your dedication and expertise.
Checkout my curriculum vitae on our website. You get an idea of flight testing. I have a B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois and graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, NAWCAD Patuxent River, MD (Class No.52, cerca 1969).
Give it a try.