Pros and cons of tendem two siter LAZAIR

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Postby LAZAIR 4 EVER » Wed May 16, 2007 7:27 pm

Hi everyone!
I have been away for some times and to busy to do any of this stuff.

I was away but still thinking(GRIN).

Anyone out there can tel me why a LAZAIR could not be built as a two seater tendem ?

I gess that they made it side by side for the ease of productions and purposly for flight instruction.
The demande for a two seater most have become so important at some point and time, that they probably had to get somthing out there and quick!

Is all this right or wrong?

Thank you guys for your answers and reeplies. By doing so! You prove the power of this wonderful tool that is LAZAIR .COM.

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Postby ozzie » Thu May 17, 2007 3:43 am

G'day welcome back, pretty good idea you have thought of. lots of changes with the weight having to be spread over a longer area vs unchanged if side by side. you will still have to increase the wing area. this is achieved with the center section combined into the fuse of the side b side. But tandem would really clean up the drag. the elite fairing would be a good start. seating like a trike. really close and slightly elevated for the rear seat. The boom would have to be a bit longer to. A lot of work but would look really great. good one!
ozzie
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Postby bdiedenhofen » Thu May 17, 2007 9:05 am

It's mostly a matter of weight and balance. With most aircraft, the engine is mounted a distance from the center of gravity, and is a bit heavier. The Lazair engines aren't too far away, and are relatively light. The pilot's seat location is pretty well at the CofG because the tail weight and engine weight balance out.
Side by side works well here because the seat location does not change the CofG much regardless of pilot and passenger weights.
For tandem, you will generally put the pilot at a point that balances the airplane against the engine and tail weights, and then put the passenger behind, (or in front - Piper Cub, Moth, Stearman) at a point where they will have minimum effect on the CofG. This could be tricky in the Lazair as the two seats would need to be too close together in order to remain within the CofG range.
You'd pretty well have to share a seat, motorcycle style.

Brian D.
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Postby huronflyer » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:02 pm

First of all I have no right to consider redesigning an airplane, especialy one
as lovely as the Lazair. Nevertheless, occasionally I ask myself what if...

One 2 place Lazairs are rare, so I have thought of using different fuse structure, with the same wing, engine, boom assembly. One recent thought was the "Earthstar Odessey"
seating (side by side - slight tandom) might be able to keep same wing area and narrow
fuse seating area to reduce drag...CofG is an issue, but not as pronouced.

For 2 place or single place I am concerned about one engine performance and
asymetrical thrust; therefore, and adaptation of the Toucan inline pwr mode really
interests me. A former Lazair dealer tells me how beautifully his flies - one of his is
forsale by the way. But they are RARE and a bit out of my price range. So making a VW
version out of Lazair parts might be an interesting project.

If you are not familiar with the Toucan it has wings made with similar construction priocess,
but not the same wing. It has two rear booms, tractor - pusher pwr. The original had Rotax
277s but the two I have seen have 503s on 1400 floats. It will fly with two persons onboard
on one engine. It will TO on wheels with 2 people and one engine (but not on floats).

Why would I change a good thing? Probably won't. But check out CYEL on Google Earth.

Cheers,

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