One Design DR107??

[RetroAcro]

The "one design" concept had a couple flaws, IMO. First was the hope that there would be significant numbers of folks willing to commit years constructing a plans-built airplane for the sole purpose of participating in aerobatic competitions against others who would be flying the exact same plane. Interesting concept, but maybe not exciting enough to spark the interest. It's hard enough to get folks to participate period. This was just not something that people were going to put the effort into to make viable. The other flaw is that the DR-107 is competitive in the existing Primary thru Advanced categories. Unless there were separate "one design" categories for different skill levels, it would either exclude lots of DR-107 pilots, or become boring for others. If the concept worked, it would be a challenge to fit in these additional categories into the current contest structure that already includes 5 categories that can be hard to get finished in the standard 2 days as it is. You would really need a dedicated "one design" contest, and that would be a little isolating from the rest of the folks in the sport.

But the DR-107 is a decent little plane on its own. There are a number of them out there, and still being built. The 750 lb. empty weight listed by the designer is not quite honest, and most of them are between 900-1000lbs. empty, which makes them a bit of a sled, considering the wing area and airfoil. They don't corner as well as a Pitts on the same power (180 hp), but make up for it by rolling almost twice as fast. The net resulting performance is on par with a 180hp Pitts. They're tiny airplanes, and like the S-1 Pitts', can be a little hard to judge when high in the box, but they're a great bang for the buck airplane. I would much rather have a Pitts, though.