Questair Venture

The Questair Venture is a homebuilt aircraft manufactured by Questair at John Bell Williams Airport in Bolton, Mississippi, United States.[2] The aircraft first flew on 1 July 1987.[1]

Questair Venture & Spirit
Questair Venture landing
Role Kit aircraft
National origin United States
Manufacturer Questair
Designer Jim Griswold
First flight 1 July 1987
Status In production
Number built 62 (2011)[1]

Development

Questair, Inc. was founded by Ed MacDonough and Jim Griswold in the mid 1980s. The Venture was designed by Griswold, a former chief engineer with Piper Aircraft, and used technology from the Piper Malibu, which Griswold led the design for as well.[3] The layout of the design was intended to combine a large two-seat side-by-side cabin with rear baggage space in the smallest possible airframe, having a highly streamlined design.

Questair Venture
Questair Spirit with fixed undercarriage at Sun N' Fun Lakeland, Florida in April 2009

The aircraft is of all-metal construction using pre-formed multi-curvature panels and is supplied as a kit to homebuilders. The Venture has a complex tricycle retractable undercarriage, but the Spirit version has a fixed spatted wheel fairings on the main landing gear, the nose landing gear remaining retractable. The engine is a Continental IO-550-G, designed specifically for the aircraft.[4]

Operational history

The first Venture made its maiden flight on 1 July 1987, and in 1991 it was followed by the Questair Spirit which had an optional third rear seat as well as fixed tricycle undercarriage. Both types have been built from kits by amateur constructors and over 30 had been completed by 2001.[5] In 1991, a Questair Venture set a time-to-climb record for its class of two minutes, thirty-one seconds to reach 3000 meters. The record stood until broken in 1999 by the custom-built Bohannon B-1.[6]

In June 1989 the Venture set three FAI speed records for piston aircraft weighing less than 1000 kg:

  • 331 miles/hour average for four 3-km runs at low altitude[7] (beat by the Nemesis NXT in 2008)
  • 305 mph for a 100-km circuit[8]
  • 284 mph for a 1000-km circuit[9]

The 100-km and 1000-km records still stand in 2023.

Aircraft on display

Specifications (Venture)

Data from Simpson, 2001, p. 455 and Kitplanes[1]

General characteristics

  • Crew: one
  • Capacity: one passenger
  • Length: 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m)
  • Wingspan: 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
  • Height: 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
  • Wing area: 72.7 sq ft (6.75 m2)
  • Aspect ratio: 10.4
  • Airfoil: Root: NACA 23017 Wing Tip: NACA 23010
  • Empty weight: 1,200 lb (544 kg)
  • Gross weight: 2,000 lb (907 kg)
  • Fuel capacity: 56 U.S. gallons (210 L; 47 imp gal)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Continental IO-550-G six cylinder, air-cooled, four stroke aircraft engine, 310 hp (230 kW)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 305 mph (491 km/h, 265 kn)
  • Cruise speed: 275 mph (443 km/h, 239 kn)
  • Stall speed: 70 mph (110 km/h, 58 kn)
  • Range: 1,150 mi (1,850 km, 1,000 nmi)
  • Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (13 m/s)
  • Wing loading: 27.5 lb/sq ft (134 kg/m2)

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Questair Venture.
Notes
  1. Vandermeullen, Richard: 2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide, Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 63. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851
  2. Therese Apel, The Clarion-Ledger (27 March 2015). "Mississippi lands only Questair Venture manufacturing facility in the nation". The Clarion Ledger. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  3. Collins, Richard (November 1987). "The Whole Kit and Caboodle". Flying. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  4. Simpson, 2001, p. 454
  5. Simpson, 2001, p. 455
  6. Goyer, Robert, ed. (November 1999). "Bohannon Sets 3,000-Meter Time to Climb Mark". Reporting Points. Flying. Vol. 126, no. 11. Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. p. 35. ISSN 0015-4806. Retrieved 16 August 2016 – via Google Books.
  7. "Richard J. Gritter (USA) (991)". www.fai.org. 10 October 2017.
  8. "Richard J. Gritter (USA) (1907)". www.fai.org. 10 October 2017.
  9. "MayCay Beeler (USA) (1909)". www.fai.org. 10 October 2017.
  10. Ogden, 2007, p. 561
  11. EAA AirVenture Museum (2011). "Questair Venture 200 – N8057J". Retrieved 5 November 2011.
Bibliography
  • Ogden, Bob (2007). Aviation Museums and Collections of North America. Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85130-385-7.
  • Simpson, Rod (2001). Airlife's World Aircraft. Airlife Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84037-115-3.
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