The last time I was at Van's Aircraft was in 1984. At that time I had no interest in building another airplane. Van took me for a ride in a RV-6 and that was the closest a civilian can get to flying a fighter plane you can build yourself. Fast, aerobatic, and great forward visibility out of the canopy and I was hooked.
A few years later we had one built. Reese and I both wanted one but fortunately decided to build only one. Built it in a friends hanger in California by working many three day weekends. All flush riveted aluminum, am told over 17,000 rivets, then put a new Lycoming engine and its been flying ever since.
Van's factory had really grown over the years and now has over 75 employees and while our plane was serial number 45 they now have over 10,000 flying and many more under construction. The factory tour leader explained that when we bought ours you could buy the plans and materials like we did but there has been some big changes over the years. A few years later came kits with precut aluminum panels then came CNC machines and the kits came with all the rivet holes punched. Their punching is so accurate that you can take a part today and it will be a perfect match for one from ten years ago. The latest are kits that are partially riveted including the forward half of the fuselage and the wing panel. The center section of the wing spar is installed and lines up with the wing panels perfectly. Wow, it would be fun to build another one. There are now many models available including a 4 place.
I remember talking to Van about sailplanes, a powered sailplane, as he liked to fly sailplanes and they still are my favorite way to fly. He was working on one as a personal project. The only room we couldn't see during the factory tour was the prototype room but was told was no sailplane project. Come on Van, how about a powered sailplane. Maybe for the best, he would get me hooked again and a proper sailplane would need a 50-60 foot wing plus a complex power system.
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| Precut Prepunched parts |
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| Fuselages an Wing Panels |
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| Fuselages |
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| Being Crated for Shipping |
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| CNC Machine |
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| RV-12 |
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