A Slippery Two-Seater

July 29, 2016 - Aircraft design truly is an art of compromise. Typically, one desirable attribute has to be given up in the interest of improving a different one. But sometimes it all just comes together.

JMB Aircraft captured a whole bunch of the good attributes many builders and pilots   want in their VL3 Evolution design. The airplane can cruise at 150 knots while consuming 5 gallons an hour. Yet even with that sort of cruise performance, a 30-knot stall speed nets a landing distance of around 500 feet. Thirty-two gallons of fuel capacity brings nearly 1,200 miles of range. 

The Rotax-powered, all composite, retractable gear, parachute-equipped, side-by-side two-seater is now available as a kit in the United States. About 230 examples of the type are flying in Europe.

Pilots Olivier Ronveaux and Harald Dispaux brought the craft from Belgium here to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016. Although the craft has the range to make a North Atlantic crossing on internal fuel alone, Ronveaux said a 10-gallon ferry tank was added in order to provide an additional safety cushion. They flew a route via Great Britain, to Iceland, and Greenland to North America and on to Oshkosh.

For the next few months the company plan a U.S. base for the airplanes, probably in Florida, and, in that time, establish a U.S. service center.

The planes are on display at JMB’s booth No. 210 and more information can be found at jmbaircraft.com.