I received my "on-line" copy of Sport Aviation today and briefly read
part of an article titled "Revolutionary Homebuilts". I was
disappointed to again find the KR a forgotten fact of history. I
immediately posted a letter to the editor as I have copied below.
Larry Flesner
To the Editor,
Glancing through the latest on-line issue of Sport Aviation I stopped to
read a portion of the "Landmark Homebuilts" article. I soon realized
that the lowly KR series was again the forgotten stepchild in homebuilt
aviation. On page 81 Burt Rutan is credited with "revolutionary
thinking" when using surfboard technology of "foam and fiberglass
construction". While Mr. Rutan is probably one of the most
"revolutionary designers" in the homebuilt arena, he was not the first
to use "foam and fiberglass construction". It seems to be a forgotten
fact of history that Ken Rand arrived at Oshkosh in 1972 with the KR 1
and two years later with the KR2, both using foam and fiberglass
construction. They both predated the VariEze, the KR1 by nearly 3
years. Mr. Rutan didn't introduce composite construction to the
homebuilt community as stated in the article, Ken Rand and Stu Robinson
did with the KR design. I seem to recall that the Lancair series
aircraft were designed by an early KR2 builder. I guess it's not too
far out of line to say that everything "plastic" flying today is simply
a branch of the KR family tree. It would be nice if Sport Aviation
could do an article on the KR aircraft and get with the First Lady of
the KR community, Jeanette Rand to capture the history of the design
before it is lost.
Larry Flesner
EAA member 356226
KR builder and flyer
_______________________________________________
Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/.
Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html.
see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change
options.
To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
