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NXT Speedy Kitplane Design Unveiled At OshkoshRemember when a kitplane was a piece of irrigation pipe and some Dacron? Well, now you can clear out the garage and put together a race-bred airplane from the folks who brought you the Nemesis F-1 racer (47 victories in 50 starts, 16 world speed records). The crew has translated their racing design into the NXT, a two-place speedster that will have its official unveiling at EAA AirVenture in late July.
Designers and builders Jon and Patricia Sharp say the first of the kit-derived aircraft is ready for flight-testing and they hope to have it flying at Oshkosh. Others hope (some with good reason) that the aircraft will eventually run better than 350 mph at 20,000 feet. With computer-finessed aerodynamics, a 2200-pound all-up gross (including 500 pounds of fuel) and a Lycoming 540 up front, the NXT may be the hottest homebuilt available. The Sharps are being coy about performance data, saying they want to state the real figures and not computer projections.
They were a little less shy about such predictions a couple of years ago, however, when they figured the little composite taildragger would hit 400 mph at 20,000 feet. That was with a similarly husky Continental 550 howling under the cowl. Lycoming has since become a Nemesis sponsor. There's a price for all that quickness.
more: www.avweb.com/newswire/10_25a/lea... (262)
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14/6/2004 | Viewed 5,821 time(s)
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