The late Harris L. Woods lost his life in 1975 in the prototype Aerosport Condor, a simple, VW-powered, all-metal, strut-braced, high-wing two-place design inspired by his earlier cantilever-wing, single-seat Quail. The NTSB accident report indicates that one of the ailerons tore off in flight, suggesting destructive flutter. Development of the Condor ended with his death, which is too bad, as there doesn't seem to have been anything fundamentally wrong with the design that couldn't have been sorted out.



Regardless, given the fact that so many of us learned to fly in and often still do fly Cessna "spam cans," the configuration and construction are known quantities, so I am pretty surprised that no one is offering a simple, easy-to-build, all-metal high wing design. Not a bushplane or a racer, just a nice little general purpose design like the Condor suitable for the 80-100 hp range that includes the big VW conversions, Rotax 912 models, Jabiru, D-Motor, ULPower, etc. Basically, it would be a high-wing Sonex equivalent, but perhaps with a little more wing area to facilitate operation from smaller fields.

Are there designs out there that I am missing? Thoughts on whether or not such a type would be well-received?