compromise. They’re touring airplanes, but
they still have reasonable aerobatic ability.”
In truth, part of Van’s continuing success
is his realistic acceptance of just how much
the homebuilt market really has changed
over the past 40 years, and his ability to
modify his designs to meet the changing
desires of his customers without compro-
mising the key features that made his
designs popular in the first place.
In 1996, the success of his side-by-side
designs made Van take a second look at his
earlier RV- 4 kit. He concluded that “the
requirements had evolved away from what
we were providing in the RV- 4,” but he still
believed there was a latent demand for a tandem aircraft, if he could offer “some of the
amenities” of the side-by-side models, such
as more baggage space and a little more
power. The result was the RV- 8 (and RV-8A
tricycle version). Two years later, in part
because the homebuilt market was evolving
away from sport aerobatic planes to traveling planes, he also came out with his first
non-aerobatic design: the RV- 9.
The RV- 9 (and tri-gear RV-9A) was
designed for the lower-time, less-current
They’re touring
airplanes, but they
still have reasonable
pilot who might otherwise buy something
like a Kitfox. The RV- 9 was a side-by-side
design with a smaller engine and longer
wings with more effective flaps—which
gave it a lower landing speed and more docile handling characteristics. As it turns out,
the RV- 9 performs so efficiently that even
with a Lycoming O-235, 118-hp engine, it
can still cruise as fast as 160 mph. But as
opposed to the higher-powered RV- 6 and
RV- 7, whose sales are split pretty evenly
between tailwheel and tri-gear versions, 95
percent of the RV- 9 customers buy the tri-cycle-gear RV-9A kit.
And still, the market continued to evolve.
For the first 30 years of his business, Van had
stayed away from a four-seat design, because
he didn’t want to compete with production
aerobatic ability.
models that seemed to be serving that segment of the market fairly well, especially
because so many reasonably priced used
production aircraft were available. But by
the early 2000s, those used aircraft were
getting more tired. And the new four-seat
production models were well beyond the
financial reach of most middle-class, working pilots, who have always been the
customers Van has most wanted to serve. It’s
easy to design a great-performing aircraft if
cost is no object. But Van’s goal has always
been to give those pilots who couldn’t afford
the latest and greatest a way to have an airplane that made them feel the way they’d
hoped flying would feel when they first
dreamed about it.
“One thing I’ve learned along the way is
that there’s a bit of Walter Mitty to [pilots’
dreams of flying]. You envision what it’s
going to be like to fly something like a World
War II fighter. But you have no idea how
heavy those controls really are, or that
they’re not well-harmonized controls,” Van
explains. “[The RV] is a good Walter Mitty
airplane, because it flies like you think a
fighter flies but doesn’t.”
Van flies the RV- 1 for the first time since 1968 during an event at Spruce Creek Airpark during the 2012 Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In. That fly-in community is filled with homebuilders, including many RV owners and builders, who were delighted to honor Van for his 40 years of contributions to the homebuilding community.
