Paul

            I too am building a Berkut. I'll be putting the mistral
           G-300 on mine
            I had to do a complete rebuild on my airplane. The
           workmanship was so
            bad on it that I couldn't even save the wings. I have some
           spare parts.
            we are almost on the gear now. I can help as well with
           whatever he needs.

            Tony


            Do they still make the berkut and wouldn't a three rotor be two
            much for the air frame? There's a guy with a similar design
           that
            gets.  250 +  at  altitude  with an  0- 200.

            Clifton

            You are speaking of Klaus and that is a variez which is smaller
            than a Berkut. The O-200 is highly modified and Klaus has spent
            1000 of flight hours refining the aerodynamics. His hangar is
            directly across the taxiway from mine so I know.


            The Berkut is designed for an O-540.

            Paul Lamar



       Ahh!!!  I'm feeling an attack of canard configurationism
       insensitivity!!  "All you canard airplanes look alike.  Can go
       500mph
       on 40hp and create fuel in the process.."  Ha ha.  :)

       A Varieze (Burt Rutan's 2nd "mainstream" design) is a small
       airplane.
       It has a total lifting surface (wing) area of 66sq ft - on par with
       Reno F1 racers, and yet the Varieze can carry 2 people in reasonable
       comfort.  A stock Varieze will cruise between 165 and 200mph on a
       100hp O-200 for about 4 hours.  There's more speed potential as
       Klaus
       has demonstrated (in x-country flying, and at Reno).

       The Long EZ was Burt's next "mainstream" design - which had a
       goal of
       correcting all of the design deficiencies of the Varieze -
       namely the
       tiny wings which limited the useful load, caused high-ish minimum
       airspeeds which necessitated long, smooth runways.  The Long EZ is
       about 40% larger in most dimensions, designed around 4 cylinder
       Lycomings (O-235's, and O-320's are common while O-360's are
       numerous), carries 2x the fuel (52gal), and because of it's
       increased
       size is necessarily less fuel efficient than the Varieze at a given
       speed.  The Long EZ is a practical 2 seat traveling airplane with
       enough useful load to carry an IFR panel, 2 adults, plus a little
       baggage across the US with one fuel stop.  A normal 150hp Long
       EZ will
       cruise around 200mph.

       Burt designed some other canard style airplanes including the
       Defiant
       (a push-pull 4-seat twin), and the Beech Starship.  All of Burt's
       experimental airplanes were plans-built, glass over foam
       construction.
        Not kit-built (ignore the Solitaire).

       The Berkut was Dave Ronneberg's creation after having done several
       Long EZ's and working on a few of Burt's projects (including the
       'round the world Voyager).  The Berkut has essentially the same wing
       area as the Long EZ but was stretched to accommodate bigger
       people and
       heavier engines - 4 Cylinder FI Big Bore Angle Valve Lycomings
       (IO-360) and can accomodate the lighter O-540's.  Fixed pitch prop,
       retractable main landing gear (along with the nose gear), F4 Phantom
       style canopies.  Lots of Carbon Fiber in the structure.  230-250mph
       cruise speed.  There was a Berkut that raced in the Sport Class at
       Reno - lapping in the low 260mph range.  Early Berkuts had only
       a few
       molded pieces of the airframe while later airplanes included
       more/mostly molded parts.

       The E-Racer was Shirl Dickey's design - LongEZ construction methods,
       wings, canard, side by side seating, and was the source of the
       retractable main gear for the Berkut.  Shirl's early airplane had an
       automotive v engine mounted behind the seats (ahead of the wing)
       driving a shaft, reduction unit and prop (located behind the wing).
       Shirl later redesigned the airplane to use a conventional aircraft
       engine mounted in the normal (LongEZ) location.  Only a few have
       been
       built.  My personal favorite.  Have used engines from v6 Buicks to
       O-320's to a supercharged O-540.  180mph to 250mph cruise
       depending on
       engine and drag reduction.

       The Cozy was Nat Puffer's design.  Started out as a Long EZ with a
       front seat wide enough for two (narrow) people, and a wide, single
       back seat.  Early Cozys even had the O-235 like the early Long EZs -
       must have been doggy..  Later (Mk IV) the back seat was widened to
       accommodate two (narrow) people and the common engine became the
       Lycoming O-360.  LongEZ wings, canard, winglets.  180 to 230mph
       cruise.  Normally built from plans like a LongEZ.  AeroCad has a kit
       version - molded parts.

       All of the above typically "kneel" while parked on the ground.
       Without the weight of the front seater(s), most of of these
       won't sit
       securely on the nose gear - tipping over to rest on the main
       gear and
       tips of the wings - usually damaging the prop.  The E-Racer is
       supposedly pretty secure while sitting on all 3 wheels - the
       passenger/pilot sit close to the airplanes CG and so they don't
       represent as much of a balancing force.  None the less, the fuselage
       sides must be climbed over to enter or exit any of these airplanes,
       and kneeling the nose gear makes this easier.  The airplanes with
       electric gear can lower and extend the gear (raising and
       lowering the
       nose) while on the ground.

       The Velocity is a totally different line of airplanes.  The only
       real
       similarities are that it has the horizontal stab up front, swept
       wings
       in the back and (most have) vertical stabs co-located with wingtip
       winglets.  Velocity's are all molded kit built, use engines from
       150-300hp.  Some of the new ones are 5 seaters - wide back seat.
       Swing up doors on each side.  Have cruise speeds from 170mph to
       270mph
       depending on whether it has retractable gear (a unique design) and
       what engine it's using.

       There have been a few other one-off airplanes that look like the
       original Varieze..



       Probably more than anyone wanted to know...  ;)

       Matt-


       Not all I still want to know if the berkut is being produce
       because I
       thought they went out of production. A long time ago.

       Clifton




       I don't know.

       Paul Lamar



   I missed that..

   All of these airplanes are still being built.  Some only from
   previously produced plans/kits.

   Rutan is out of the game.  There are copies of plans available (being
   printed now) for the LongEZ.  Actually, Rutan's plans are really a
   fairly complete manufacturing manual.

   The Berkut has been out of production for a long time.  To my
   knowledge none of the major molded pieces are available.

   I believe Shirl Dickey no longer sells plans.

   Cozy plans are available new.  AeroCad makes as much of a molded
   airframe as you want.

   The Velocity is still being produced.


   Matt-

I was at Montgomery field the other day when a couple of canards did a
low pass at very high speed then eventually parked right next to my plane.

A large group of geek and business types came out and started gawking
at the planes, where I now recognized as Berkuts. (actually, they were
calling one by a different name, but it was the same plane).  Both
planes had been modified with the rear seat turned into a cargo bay.  I
tried to listen into the presentation, but they shooed me away.  All I
could get was that one of the planes was built at the "factory" from the
new tooling and was the "production prototype".

I was told that the new prices are now way out of range of the homebuilder.