Questair Venture

The Questair Venture is a homebuilt aircraft manufactured by Questair at John Bell Williams Airport in Bolton, Mississippi, United States.[2] The aircraft first flew on 1 July 1987.[1]

Questair Venture & Spirit
Questair Venture landing
Role Kit aircraft
National origin United States
Manufacturer Questair
Designer Jim Griswold
First flight 1 July 1987
Status In production
Number built 62 (2011)[1]

Development

Questair Inc was founded by Ed MacDonough in the mid 1980s. The Venture was designed by Jim Griswold, an engineer with Piper Aircraft, and used technology from the Piper Malibu. The layout of the design was intended to combine a large two-seat side-by-side cabin with rear baggage space in the smallest possible airframe, having a highly streamlined design.

Questair Venture
Questair Spirit with fixed undercarriage at Sun N' Fun Lakeland, Florida in April 2009

The aircraft is of all-metal construction using pre-formed multi-curvature panels and is supplied as a kit to homebuilders. The Venture has a complex tricycle retractable undercarriage, but the Spirit version has a fixed spatted wheel fairings on the main landing gear, the nose landing gear remaining retractable. The engine is a Continental IO-550-G, designed specifically for the aircraft.[3]

Operational history

The first Venture made its maiden flight on 1 July 1987, and in 1991 it was followed by the Questair Spirit which had an optional third rear seat as well as fixed tricycle undercarriage. Both types have been built from kits by amateur constructors and over 30 had been completed by 2001.[4] In 1991, a Questair Venture set a time-to-climb record for its class of two minutes, thirty-one seconds to reach 3000 meters. The record stood until broken in 1999 by the custom-built Bohannon B-1.[5]

Aircraft on display

Specifications (Venture)

Data from Simpson, 2001, p. 455 and Kitplanes[1]

General characteristics

  • Crew: one
  • Capacity: one passenger
  • Length: 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m)
  • Wingspan: 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
  • Height: 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
  • Wing area: 72.7 sq ft (6.75 m2)
  • Empty weight: 1,200 lb (544 kg)
  • Gross weight: 2,000 lb (907 kg)
  • Fuel capacity: 56 U.S. gallons (210 L; 47 imp gal)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Continental IO-550-G six cylinder, air-cooled, four stroke aircraft engine, 310 hp (230 kW)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 305 mph (491 km/h, 265 kn)
  • Cruise speed: 275 mph (443 km/h, 239 kn)
  • Stall speed: 70 mph (110 km/h, 61 kn)
  • Range: 1,150 mi (1,850 km, 1,000 nmi)
  • Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (13 m/s)
  • Wing loading: 27.5 lb/sq ft (134 kg/m2)
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References
Notes
  1. Vandermeullen, Richard: 2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide, Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 63. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851
  2. Therese Apel, The Clarion-Ledger (27 March 2015). "Mississippi lands only Questair Venture manufacturing facility in the nation". The Clarion Ledger. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  3. Simpson, 2001, p. 454
  4. Simpson, 2001, p. 455
  5. Goyer, Robert, ed. (November 1999). "Bohannon Sets 3,000-Meter Time to Climb Mark". Reporting Points. Flying. Vol. 126 no. 11. Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. p. 35. ISSN 0015-4806. Retrieved 16 August 2016 – via Google Books.
  6. Ogden, 2007, p. 561
  7. EAA AirVenture Museum (2011). "Questair Venture 200 – N8057J". Retrieved 5 November 2011.
Bibliography
  • Ogden, Bob (2007). Aviation Museums and Collections of North America. Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-385-4.
  • Simpson, Rod (2001). Airlife's World Aircraft. Airlife Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84037-115-3.
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