HISTORY OF THE QUICKIE 2

One of the most unusual designs in our collection is the Quickie 2. It gets its unique name because it was supposed to be quick to build and because it was so fast in the air. This is a home built aircraft designed by Burt Rutan, famous for his VariEze, the round the world Voyager design as well as Space Ship One, the first privately built and flown craft to fly into space.

The Quickie 2 is a twin seat plane with a 64 HP Revmaster, which is an improved Volkswagen Beetle engine especially beefed-up to ensure reliability. It has a canard wing, which means the main wings are towards the rear with a smaller wing forward near the nose. The full-span elevators are on the canard and the inboard ailerons are on the rear wing. As a result, the plane does not completely stall because the rear wings cannot go beyond the critical angle of attack and lateral control remains good even at very low speeds. The Q2 does not spin.

The structure has a foam core covered with fiberglass and epoxy resin, which results in a very lightweight plane that is strong, sleek and relatively inexpensive to build. Officially this is a tractor (propeller up front) canard/tail-less biplane! It is so strong and durable that the canard surface can be walked on without causing any damage whatsoever! The Q2 is known as much for what it doesn’t have as for what it has. It doesn’t have retractable landing gear (the wheels are mounted on the tips of its canard). It does not have flaps or spoilers. It does not have a variable pitch propeller nor does it have a turbocharger.

OUR AIRCRAFT

This particular aircraft first flew at Golden, BC on August 5th, 1982 and made its last flight there on September 21st, 1986, accumulating a total of just 83.7 flying hours. Brothers Martin and Ken Olson kindly donated it to our museum.

FAST FACTS

• The Voyager in 1986 was the first aircraft to fly around the world nonstop without refueling. It was piloted by Burt Rutan’s brother Dick and Jeannie Yeager.
• Space Ship One in 2004: The world’s first private venture spacecraft and winner of the $10 million Ansari X Prize for completing two space flights within two weeks (though they spent $20M to do it!). Piloted on its first space flight by Mike Melville, the world’s first commercial astronaut.
• Global Flyer in March 2005: completed the first ever solo ‘round the world flight without stopping or refueling. Flown by Steve Fossett. This took two days and 19 hours.
• Our Quickie 2 is reputedly the first one completed in Canada.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Wingspan of 5.11 metres (16ft 8in)
• Height of 5.96 metres (19ft 7in)
• Length of 6.05 metres (19ft 10in)
• Maximum speed of 370 km/h (230 mph)
• Rate of climb of 1600 ft/min