ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig) (11/21/85)
Hmmm... Beech has hired Burt Rutan and Roy LoPresti. What do you suppose they are going to do?
cfiaime@ihnp3.UUCP (J. Williams) (11/22/85)
In article <4599@alice.UUCP> ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig) writes: >Hmmm... Beech has hired Burt Rutan and Roy LoPresti. >What do you suppose they are going to do? Several Aviation Week issues have noted that Beech is going to go more and more to Rutan designs. Let's face it, who do you think did the aerodynamics of the Starship? Not Walter Beech (actually he is dead, and has been for years) because he had a thing for cabin biplanes. Really, Beech is looking for a Duke sized composite canard, and is also looking at dropping turbines on the Starship. Bert is one of the leading engineers on aircraft composite structures, according to many sources. (Other sources say differently, but you have to admit that his ideas do fly.) Roy LoPresti, on the other hand, may not have been an administrator (or may have just ticked off Mooney), but the man is one of the best aerodynamic cleanup artists in the business. He is the one who did the American Tiger, American Cheetah, and the Mooney 201. All spectacular improvements with no increase of horsepower. Beech is going to be interesting in the next few years. Gone are the days of Olive Ann running the company. The old guard is gone, and the new is going to come in and kick, yes they are. Expect the same quality, but also look for radical designs. As an aside, aside from Starship, what really new designs have come out of Beech since 1963? That was the year of the Musketeer. It is time that they stopped reinventing the Bonanza and got some new designs out the door. jeff williams ihnp3!cfiaime AT&T Bell Laboratories
dave@onfcanim.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (11/23/85)
Didn't Beech also hire (or at least have under contract) John Roncz, the designer of many of the airfoils that are used on later Rutan planes?
wolit@mhuxd.UUCP (Jan Wolitzky) (11/26/85)
Given that Roy Lopresti designs planes with the tail on backwards, and Bert Rutan builds them with the whole plane backwards (elevators in front, engine in back), it seems only natural that they should be working together.... [Remember, keep the pointy end forward and the dirty side down.] -- Jan Wolitzky, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ; 201 582-2998; mhuxd!wolit (Affiliation given for identification purposes only)