The shape of the future? Bellanca Skyrocket article from FLYING Magazine January 1983
The January 1983 issue of FLYING Magazine is an amazing read!
When I posted my fantasy TBIRD 6 seater design I knew that it was meant to be the kind of airplane that would be cut from the same cloth as the Bellanca Skyrocket II. Hmm, you aren't familiar with the Bellanca Skyrocket II? There's good news then... FLYING Magazine from January 1983 (30 years ago!) has a great article on that incredible performing 6 seat aircraft. And Google Books just happens to have the entire magazine available online for you to read, just hit this link: FLYING Magazine January 1983 - the Skyrocket article starts on page 46.
I won't tell you much about the Skyrocket II because I want you to read that very interesting article about it. But I will tell you that the airplane was powered by a 435 hp Continental engine and had a cruise speed over 300 mph! The Skyrocket II was the future back in the late 70's but possibly because it just sounded too good to be true, it never made it into production. (here's an AVweb article from Oshkosh 1999 about a more recent attempt to market this incredible airplane - scroll down to the article)
Burt Rutan back in the day: from a must-read article in FLYING Magazine January 1983
How about a fascinating article on Burt Rutan from 1983 with text and pictures by Peter Garrison? It starts on page 60 and gives some great history on Burt's earlier work. I learned something that I don't remember ever knowing... that the Scaled Composites was originally just called 'Scaled' and it was actually an acronym for: Scaled Composites: Advance Link to Efficient Development. I love learning these kinds of details! It's a great article for anyone interested in the amazing aeronautical career of Burt Rutan pre-Voyager, pre Boomerang, pre-SpaceShipOne.
And there's a whole lot more in this January 1983 issue of FLYING Magazine... from an extensive article on the AT-6/SNJ/Harvard WWII trainer (page 36) to a fascinating accident account of a Rockwell Commander 700 crash that claimed six lives very needlessly (page 74). From an article on how modern airplanes were mostly just old airplanes made slightly different (page 52) to a boatload of small ads in the back for what was then a booming Ultralight marketplace. It's all fascinating to see... article after article that you are likely to find interesting in the January 1983 FLYING Magazine!
So start your brand spanking new 2013 off with a trip 30 years back to the future! Click the cover pic below to go to the Google Books online archive of the magazine, and Happy New year!
Click the pic to go to the Google Books archive of FLYING Magazine January 1983