8 KITPLANES November 2008 www.kitplanes.

com
 Open your book of superlatives for Lancair’s first built-for-a-turbine kit.
BY DOUG ROZENDAAL

As a kit company, Lancair has remained price and an estimated finished price fore, this is not the definitive flight
true to a specific course: create airplanes of $650,000 to $1 million. Sans wings report of a finished product. Instead, it’s
that are fast and sexy. Fast comes from a and tail, the mockup looked dispropor- the premiere look into the potential of
lot of power, sexy comes from the com- tionate, and the round windows had the this exciting new airplane.
posite curves. When the Lancair IV essence of Charlie Brown’s Snoopy. First
arrived in the early 1990s, it was a hot flight was on March 21, 2008. Fabric of Society
rod by any standard. With 98 square The Evolution arrived at AirVenture Composite design allows airplanes to
feet of wing on a 2900-pound airplane, ’08 with a slick paint scheme and a one- slip through the air. If there is a flat
it demanded respect from its pilots. Pres- piece windshield. Snoopy was returned piece of skin anywhere on the airplane,
surization necessitated air conditioning, to the doghouse, and the now much I never saw it. Lancair General Manager
then more fuel, and then came a turbine more compelling Evolution was greeted and Evolution designer Tim Ong is a
engine. The IV platform evolved to and by oohs and aaahs. mechanical engineer who specialized
beyond its natural limits, and it’s fair It’s worth noting that the airplane in fluid dynamics, and it shows. The
to say the Propjet is more burdened by is a prototype and is therefore a work airplane looks as though it would barely
more compromises than most. To move in progress. Many of the systems are in disturb the air molecules as it nudged
forward, Lancair had to start again. need of fine-tuning, and while the pres- them aside and then neatly put them
Joe Bartels acquired Lancair Interna- sure vessel has been tested, the airplane back where they were.
tional from founder Lance Neibauer in has not been flown pressurized. There- The airplane appears at peace with
2003. “We knew from day one
there had to be another prod-
uct,” Bartels said. “The IV-P was
a great airplane, but it was on
the other side of prime.” While
stopping short of saying that the
airplane was too hot to handle
for the average customer, Bartels
acknowledged that the company
needed an airplane that could be
flown comfortably by the aver-
age pilot in the target market. “It
takes a current pilot to fly the IV.
It was time for a change.”
The “change” is called the
Evolution, and the mockup was
revealed at AirVenture 2007,
carrying a $250,000 base kit

Photos: Richard VanderMeulen KITPLANES November 2008 9

Evolution continued

the pilots and passengers as well. The

mockup was appointed with an interior
suitable for a luxury automobile with
adequate room for four normal size
adult passengers. Headroom, shoulder
and elbowroom are spacious in the front
and comfortable in the back. Legroom
is excellent for all.
A spacious cabin is of no use without
payload to support it. The target empty
weight for a fully equipped airplane
is 2350 pounds with a gross weight of
4300. Full fuel is 1132 pounds, leaving
just more than 800 for the cabin. That
means it should be able to fi ll the seats
and the fuel tanks—a rarity, particu-
larly in turbine equipment.

Sampling the Systems

The prototype is outfitted with a two-
screen Garmin G-900X system with
synthetic vision and a touchscreen panel
in the center called ACES (aircraft con-
trol and environment system). That sys-
tem controls nearly all other functions
and related electronic circuit breakers.
A small panel of conventional circuit
breakers located on the front of the spar

The precisely engineered quadrant does not extend downward, allowing legroom
underneath for a cross-cockpit leg stretch on a long flight.

The mirror finish on the wing demon-
strates the quality of the mold tooling and
the attention to detail in the Lancair Evolu-
tion. Much of the wing is wetted with fuel,
140 gallons standard, 170 optional.
will be moved to the space between the
seats for easier access on subsequent
models. Five rocker switches and the
gear switch on the glare shield make
for a remarkably clean and uncluttered
cockpit.
The autopilot is a TruTrak Sorcerer. A
yaw damper is planned instead of rudder
trim. Light airplanes with large engines
require substantial rudder trim adjust-
ments with power and speed changes,
and here the electric elevator and aileron
trim are controlled by a “coolie hat” on
the side stick. The landing gear is elec-
tric/hydraulic, and three identical actu-
ators move it up and down. An internal
collar inside these cylinders locks the
gear down using balls that fall into a
groove. Think of the locking mecha-
nism in an air hose coupler. Hydraulic
pressure holds the gear up, and releasing
the pressure drops the gear in the event
of a malfunction.
The maingear is trailing link, and the
link is attached to a massive triangular
trunnion. The gear sports the same tire
as on the nosewheel of a T-38 Talon
military jet. The nosewheel on the Evo-
lution is a 500x5 conventional general
aviation tire and casters with rudder and
differential braking.
The wings are almost entirely wetted
and hold 84.5 gallons each. The pro-
totype has a manual left/right/off fuel
selector, but in the final kit this will be
an automatic system that switches from

10 KITPLANES November 2008 www.kitplanes.com


A conventional 5.00x5 aircraft tire casters
with rudder deflection and differential
braking. The nosegear retracts aft under
the engine and is deployed by a gas spring
in the event of an emergency extension.
left to right automatically on a 10-min-
ute timer. If a low-fuel light comes on,
the system will switch to the other tank
until both low-fuel lights are on, and
then cycle once a minute. Why the fuss?
Turbine engines need an uninterrupted
supply of fuel, and the automatic system
should ensure that nearly all fuel avail-
able will be continuously supplied to the
engine until it’s gone.
A proprietary natural laminar airfoil
concludes with Frise type ailerons and
Fowler flaps. The ailerons are actuated
by push-pull tubes, and the flaps are
deployed by electric screw jacks. The
elevator is also controlled by push-tube
controls with a conventional trimtab.
The rudder is actuated by cables, but
rather than attaching to conventional
bell cranks at the bottom of the rudder
(a configuration that changes geometry
with deflection), the rudder cable wraps
around a capstan that maintains con-
sistent deflection geometry with pedal
movement. The elevator and aileron con-
trols pass through the cabin bulkhead
via bell cranks and bearings instead of
control boots, which increase friction in
the control system and are a perpetual
source of cabin leaks.
The pressurization system was not yet With the runup complete, we took the
installed, but cabin pressure will be elec- runway, brought the power up to 80%
tronically managed by the ACES con- N1, checked the engine temps and pres-
troller. The planned 6.0 psi differential sures, released the brakes and pushed
will yield an 8000-foot cabin altitude at the power up to 1250 foot-pounds of
FL280. torque. At 1900 rpm, that equates to
about 450 hp—well below the 500-hp
Say Hello to My Little Friend takeoff limit.
The Evolution prototype has a Pratt & Without interior pressurization, air
Whitney PT6A-135A. This is a 750- conditioning, de-icing and several other
horsepower version of the most popular amenities, the prototype Evolution is
turboprop engine of all time. PT6s come light; fully furnished, it will surely weigh
in three sizes: small, medium and large. more than the current 2200 pounds.
There are several dash numbers in each With 400 pounds in the cabin and only
group, and the -135A is considered to 50 gallons of fuel, our weight was low.
be the best in the medium-size group. It Nearly 500 hp on a 2900-pound air-
has a high-torque gearbox, which allows plane is a good ride. Rudder deflection
high power at lower and quieter propel- is required to counteract torque, but
ler speeds. the forces were less than I expected. The
For piston-aircraft pilots the most airplane leapt into the air, and as soon
challenging part of flying the Evo is as the gear and flaps were retracted, we
likely to be engine start. The before-start could push the power up beyond the
checklist is brief, and the switches on the takeoff limit.
glareshield are turned on in order: mas- The engine rigging was not complete,
ter, fuel pump, ignition and start. When and the engine power was not limited
the N1 stabilizes, move the condition by torque or temperature—as is usually
lever over the gate to introduce fuel and the case—but rather by the travel of the
monitor the inter-turbine temperature power lever. Trimming up the engine
(ITT) for a hot start. When the engine is controls required running the engine
running, turn the starter off, un-feather
the prop, and move the condition lever
forward to 1200 rpm.
The Evolution has a four-blade metal
prop that is susceptible to a resonance
problem when operating between 400
and 1200 rpm in a tailwind condition.
Above 1200 rpm, the generator can be
turned on and you’re ready to taxi. Tur-
bine airplanes have nice features called
“beta” and reverse. Beta moves the pro-
peller blades to flat pitch, which stops the
prop from making thrust, while reverse
actually reverses the blades and adds
power. Because of the big engine and
small airplane, all taxiing is done in beta
or reverse. The Evolution power quad-
rant is a well engineered, precision piece
of machinery. It has a smooth feel with
some innovative interlocks to prevent
inadvertently selecting beta or reverse.
Taxiing is easy with only braking used
for steering. The rudder is effective at low
power and, unlike some piston-powered
airplanes with castering nosewheels, hot
brakes should never be an issue.
KITPLANES November 2008 11
Evolution continued
at full rated power on the ground. Ong
and the Lancair crew have yet to deter-
mine how to secure the airplane to the
ground for a full-power ground run.
With the power lever at the firewall,
temps and torques were far below red-
line. That information hides easily
among all the data displayed on the
G-900, but after a few flights it would
most likely become second nature.
With the power pulled back to 1300
foot-pounds of torque at 120 KIAS the
airplane climbed at 3000 fpm.
Lancair Offers a Piston Alternative
A day or so before Doug Rozendaal got
to fly the turbine Evolution, Lancair
announced that it would be working
on a piston alternative. This was not
terribly “new news,” because boss Joe
Bartels had said that a less expensive
iteration of the new airplane was always
a possibility. But what surprised most of
those in the Lancair tent the morning of
the announcement was the name on the
valve covers. Instead of Teledyne Conti-
nental, it was Textron Lycoming. What?
It’s no secret that Lycoming has
become aggressive in the kit market,
as its share has been eroded by “clone”
engine manufacturers and an early
strong relationship between Conti-
nental and the kitbuilt world for the
high-horsepower engines. Generally,
Lycoming owns the market below 260
horsepower, Continental above that
level.
So when Bartels removed the drape
from the firewall-forward mockup
with a big, nasty Lycoming—and then
Lancair General Manager Tim Ong
removed the carbon cowling, “acciden-
tally” hitting his boss on the head with
it—you could almost hear gasps from
the audience. Why? Lancair is eager to
leverage the technology Lycoming is
12 KITPLANES November 2008
Getting Outta OSH
We left the crowds and the traffic of
Oshkosh and moved over to Sheboygan,
Wisconsin, (KSBM) on the east side of
Lake Winnebago. I asked Ong if he had
any concern about crossing the 10 miles
of water in the lake. He smiled and said
it was not a problem. I would later find
out why.
At Sheboygan, Ong took the airplane
to demonstrate a landing. On downwind
he selected gear down, set approach
flaps, and slowed to 100 KIAS. I started
to squirm. While the nose was not high,
it seemed much too slow. On base, with
offering with its new iE2 FADEC system,
though it’s also likely that Lycoming was
more willing to promise engineering
assistance than was Continental, which
has typically taken a hands-off approach
with the kit builders.
To keep the turbine Evolution in sight,
the Lycoming TEO-540, with twin turbos,
intercoolers and FADEC, is targeted
at 350 hp. Given that a turbocharged
piston engine doesn’t lose much power
with altitude—and a turbine, which is
really just a normally aspirated engine,
does—the speed delta might not be
as great as you’d think. Bartels is say-
ing 270 knots. Fuel consumption—a
claimed 22 gph at max cruise—and cost
are two reasons the piston alternative
is so attractive. A new Pratt & Whitney
PT6A is around $400,000; the entire
firewall-forward package for the piston
Evolution is estimated at a fourth that.
The last question is, naturally: When?
Based on the development cycle of the
turbine Evolution, probably no sooner
than two years from now. Not only does
Lancair have to work out the firewall-
forward design, but Lycoming has to get
the TEO-540 flying. Currently, the engine
is only flying in a test cell.
—Marc Cook
full flaps he slowed to 85 KIAS, and I
was fidgeting. The airplane was rock
solid as he slowed to cross the numbers
at 75 KIAS. Even so, I sat on my hands
to keep from reaching up and adding
power, but the speed was right and we
touched down smoothly in the paint. A
little reverse and we stopped quickly.
We reconfigured for takeoff, and I
took the airplane. Already I was learn-
ing where to look for torque and tem-
perature, and before I had the power set,
the airplane was climbing skyward at an
alarming rate. From a stop-and-go land-
ing, we were at pattern altitude crossing
the end of the runway with a huge power
reduction to keep the speed under con-
trol, and it was my turn to land.
The speeds that seemed too slow
when I was watching the landing
seemed just right with my hand on the
stick. I matched Ong’s smooth arrival in
the touchdown zone. “Even though the
speeds feel right, they seem too slow,”
I said. “If you are a few knots hot, that
long wing will float forever,” he replied.
I believe him.
Some turbines have the low pitch
stops set low to keep taxi speed under
control. These airplanes will fall out of
the sky when the throttles are closed,
The Evolution’s fully counterbalanced
rudder slots into a vertical fin that sets a
new design ethic for the company. Lancair
is considering a yaw damper in place of
rudder trim to reduce pilot workload.
www.kitplanes.com
Evolution continued

making landings an interesting propo-

sition of precisely finding the spot with
minimal power that keeps the prop pull-
ing instead of becoming a barn door—in
turn blanking the center of the wing and
all of the tail. I don’t know whether it is
the 1200-rpm idle speed required by the
prop harmonic or the setting of the low
pitch settings, but this airplane lands
beautifully at idle power.

Air Work Made Easy

We refueled with 100 gallons of Jet A 1
and departed Sheboygan. At 8500 feet
we slowed the airplane and dropped
the gear and flaps for some stalls and
1. Garmin’s G-900X avionics suite, side
slow flight. Our weight was now 3200 stick control, and the ACES (aircraft control
pounds. Ong demonstrated power-off and environmental systems) touchscreen
stalls at 56 knots indicated with a 2- to panel combine to make an uncluttered
3-knot noticeable aerodynamic warn- cockpit with only a few vital switches and
ing. Half-flap stall was at 65 KIAS, and three backup instruments.
with flaps up it unhooked at 75 KIAS 2. The rudder cable wraps around a cap-
with the same warning. stan instead of a conventional bellcrank,
which gives consistent control geometry
with rudder pedal deflection compared
to a typical bellcrank system.

LANCAIR
3. A massive gear trunnion and trailing link
gear soften the effect of the high-pressure
EVOLUTION
Price ........................................................................... $250,000
jet tires, making firm arrivals into pilot-
pleasing greasers.
Estimated completed price .................... $650,000 - $1 million
Estimated build time.......................................................... N/A
Number flying (at press time) .................................................1
2 4. Long ailerons provide nice roll feel and
the effective Fowler flaps generate lots
Powerplant.........................Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-125 of lift that lowers stall speed to an FAR
Propeller......Hartzell four-blade, constant-speed, feathering Part 23 compliant 61 knots at max gross
Powerplant options............Various PT6As, Lycoming TEO-540 weight.
AIRFRAME
Wingspan ......................................................................... 37 ft
Wing loading ...................................................... 29.05 lb/sq ft
Fuel capacity..............................................140 gal std, 170 opt
Maximum gross weight ................................................4300 lb
Typical empty weight....................................................2350 lb
Typical useful load.........................................................1950 lb
Full-fuel payload, standard fuel ...................................1005 lb
Seating capacity ......................................................................4
Baggage capacity ............................................................225 lb

PERFORMANCE
Cruise speed ........................................... 389 mph (338 kt) TAS
25,000 ft, 39 gph
Maximum rate of climb .............................................4000 fpm
Stall speed (landing configuration) ............ 70 mph (61 kt) IAS
Stall speed (clean) .......................................86 mph (75 kt) IAS
Takeoff distance ............................................................1000 ft
Landing distance...........................................................1000 ft

Specifi cations are manufacturer’s estimates and

are based on the configuration of the demonstrator
aircraft . As they say, your mileage may vary.
3 4

14 KITPLANES November 2008 www.kitplanes.com

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INGENUITY.
RELIABILITY.

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 Evolution continued
It was my turn, and I repeated the
exercise. As the speed slows the airplane
gets a little “roll-y,” but it is easily control-
lable. At the stall I had full aft stick and
held it. The airplane was totally control-
lable in roll with either the ailerons or
the rudder; as it broke the nose dropped
slightly, and I held the stick back. The
nose came up and it broke again, just like
a Cherokee 140. The speed was creeping
up as was the descent rate, but absolutely
no bad habits were apparent. Steep turns
were intuitive, and while the ailerons are
heavier and the rudders are lighter than
I would like, they are probably just about
right for an IFR cross-country cruiser.
Yaw damping will be nice, but only
because it is a replacement for trim. The
airplane has no tail-wagging tendencies
that I noticed.
Thermaling, Anyone?
Over the airport Ong explained the
reason he wasn’t worried about crossing
the small lake in an Experimental pro-
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16 KITPLANES November 2008
A device behind the right-side exhaust stack controls the exhaust flow and prevents
buildup of soot on the fuselage that’s typical of turbines operated at low altitudes.
totype. We slowed the airplane, and he
feathered the propeller. He told me to
maintain best glide speed of 110 knots.
After some speed oscillations the VSI
settled down to 600 fpm.
This was the most incredible thing I
had seen yet. Think about it. That is less
than 300 feet of altitude lost per stat-
ute mile. That’s a 22:1 glide ratio. I was
tempted to start looking for thermals.
At a typical cruise altitude of 25,000
feet, say 22,000 above the high key for
a dead-stick overhead approach at most
airports in America, the airplane might
glide for as long as 30 minutes; at 110
knots that is 55 n.m. Granted, we were
flying an airplane well below gross
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ing and pressurization, but it is still an
incredible feat. Not only was the low
descent rate impressive, the best glide
speed of 110 knots is a nice low number
that can be easily transitioned into a
dead-stick landing without superhuman
pilot skills.
With the bottom end of the enve-
lope studied, we climbed to look at the
top end. The flutter analysis was not yet
complete, and Lancair has limited the
airplane to a 210 KIAS Vne instead of
the anticipated 255 KIAS. Moreover,
without oxygen we were limited to
14,000 feet. We climbed there quickly
and pointed the airplane into the wind
until the velocity vector on the G-900
matched the heading indicator, showing
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that we were pointed directly into the
wind. The limited power available from
the power lever rigging gave us only 1300
foot-pounds of torque, and that gave
us our 210 KIAS max airspeed, which
yielded a 247-knot groundspeed. A 180°
turn downwind made the groundspeed
285 knots for an average of 266 KTAS.
Without a lengthy explanation of the
extrapolation of those numbers, it is
reasonable to expect that the Evolution
will cruise at well over 300 KTAS. Offi-
cially, Lancair is sticking to its original
estimates of 330-knot max cruise (at a
claimed 39 gph) and 270-knot economy
cruise (at 23 gph). matter, max gear extension speed (Vlo) no reason to question that claim.
In the few minutes at altitude, Ong is a usefully high 180 KIAS—10° of flaps Lancair has said all along, during the
and I were feeling the effects, and we can come out at 160 KIAS. Good stuff. protracted development process, that
hurried back down. While the airplane the Evolution would take up where the
might be a glider with the propeller Where to from Here? IV-P and the Propjet left off, to begin
feathered, with the prop in low pitch The Evolution is a work in progress, but the journey well out of the growth-lim-
and the power back, it falls like a brick the result is clear: It has great manners ited envelope of the earlier design. From
and we were quickly back in breathing at slow speed without sacrificing the top what I’ve seen, it’s off to a fine start. 
altitudes. That’ll come in handy when end. Lancair has subjected the airplane
ATC demands a “slam dunk” approach, to an FAR Part 23 test card and claims it For more information, call 541/923-
as will the Evolution’s ability to keep up meets those handling criteria. Based on 2244, or visit www.lancair.com. Find a
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KITPLANES November 2008 17