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From: marcum@rhino.UUCP (Alan M. Marcum)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Rutan's Voyager
Message-ID: <227@rhino.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Nov-84 22:58:01 EST
Article-I.D.: rhino.227
Posted: Thu Nov  1 22:58:01 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Nov-84 20:50:58 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Fortune Customer Support
Lines: 48

For those interested, the November issue of _Flying_ has a couple
of nice pictures of Burt Rutan's Voyager from EAA at Oskosh this
year.  Also, "Bax Seat" is entitled "Fantastic Voyager," and is
about Rutan's venture.  An interesting point mentioned in the
article is that the project has a money problem (so what's new?),
and the Voyager Team was actively seeking donations at EAA. 
Apparently, for a gift of $100 or more, your name will go into a
logbook to be given to the Smithsonian (details from the Voyager
Team at

	Voyager Team
	Hangar 77
	Airport
	Mojave, California 93501

For those unfamiliar with the project, Burt Rutan has built a
plane which his brother, Dick, and Jeana Yeager (no relation, I
believe) plan to fly around the world -- non-stop, without
refueling.

The plane is interesting, to say the least.  Centerline thrust
twin, long, slender, canard (of course), shaped sort-of like

			       -+-
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		========|=======|=======|========
			|	|	|
			|      -+-	|
			|		|
			|		|

(with apologies to Burt) in a top view.  The twin outboard booms
are fuel tanks, with a rudder on the back of each.  There's a
small bubble canopy just forward of the main wing in the center
boom for the cockpit.  The landing gear are retracted by a manual
crank during the climb (phew!).  Most of the two-week flight,
after climbing to altitude,  will be made on one engine.

Interesting plane.  Many parallels are being drawn between
Voyager and Spirit of St. Louis.

Any comments out there on Voyager?
-- 
Alan M. Marcum		Fortune Systems, Redwood City, California
...!{ihnp4, ucbvax!amd, hpda, sri-unix, harpo}!fortune!rhino!marcum