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Thread: Largest Homebuilt Airplane?

  1. #1
    wallda's Avatar
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    Largest Homebuilt Airplane?

    Wondering what the largest homebuilt/amature-built aircraft to ever visit EAA Airventure/Fly In?

  2. #2
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wallda View Post
    Wondering what the largest homebuilt/amature-built aircraft to ever visit EAA Airventure/Fly In?
    My guess (at least in wingspan) would be the Rutan Voyager, but I don't know if it was licensed as an Amateur-Built or not....

    Ron Wanttaja

  3. #3

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    Dean Wilson's Private Explorer or Global Explorer? I don't know which one is bigger and I don't know if they have both been to OSH.

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    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    The Voyager indeed was registered EAB and had gross weight of 9694 lbs and a wingspan of 110 feet.
    This beats out Wilson's global explorer by more than a thousand pounds and 30 feet of wingspan. The private explorer was substantially smaller.


  5. #5
    crusty old aviator's Avatar
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    This beats out Wilson's global explorer by more than a thousand pounds and 30 feet of wingspan. The private explorer was substantially smaller.

    True, but the Explorer was also way cooler! It was like a flying motorhome! Yeah, the Voyager set a record and all that, but it didn't make people think, wow! I could build this! like the Explorer did. Also, Wilson didn't ask people for donations to built his dream, he just built it. I had to work through lunch one day, so I sent Rutan my unspent lunch money, to help out with the Voyager, and they didn't even spend it on the project...they made a big joke out of it, even though I had enclosed a note explaining it wasn't. My mother always told me to never trust a man who wears lambchops on his face...I should have listened!

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    Um, the Spruce Goose?

    It would be considered an Experimental if built today, after all...
    The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

  7. #7
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frank Giger View Post
    Um, the Spruce Goose?

    It would be considered an Experimental if built today, after all...
    It was an experimental then, too. Had an NX registration. Pre-dated the Amateur-Built regulations by a few years, though.

    Ron Wanttaja

  8. #8
    crusty old aviator's Avatar
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    But walida asked "...to ever visit EAA Airventure/Fly In?" I don't recall Hughes' big girl ever getting very far from the Pacific Coast, let alone Wisconsin.

  9. #9
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by crusty old aviator View Post
    But walida asked "...to ever visit EAA Airventure/Fly In?" I don't recall Hughes' big girl ever getting very far from the Pacific Coast, let alone Wisconsin.
    It's sitting in McMinnville now (which is quite a ways inland) but it didn't get there under its own power.

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