The Marske Pioneer is a family of

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, single-seat,

mid-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

, tailless gliders that was designed by Jim Marske. The Pioneer II version was available as plans and in kit form from

Marske Aircraft Corporation Marske Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft design firm founded by Jim Marske (born 1938) and based in Marion, Ohio. The company specialized in the design of tailless gliders primarily for amateur construction.Said, Bob: ''1983 Sail ...

for amateur construction.Said, Bob: ''1983 Sailplane Directory,

Soaring Magazine ''SOARING'' is a magazine published monthly as a membership benefit of the Soaring Society of America. It was first published in 1937. The headquarters is in Hobbs, New Mexico. The magazine's article topics include safety issues and accounts of ind ...

'', pages 15 and 46. Soaring Society of America, November 1983. USPS 499-920Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 57-58. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster OK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485X

Design and development

The first Pioneer began as an aircraft construction project of Walt MacFarlane in 1965, but he did not complete the aircraft. The partially completed project was purchased by Bill Daniels and Jim Marske in 1967, who completed it and first flew the aircraft in 1968. That prototype, serial number 1, registered N7910 was still registered to Daniels in 2011. In its original configuration the Pioneer had a wingspan. The aircraft was constructed with a wood and doped fabric wing, with the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

made from steel tube and

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

. The design features a fixed monowheel landing gear, flaps for glide-path control and spoilers for roll control instead of the more usual

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s. The original Pioneer was modified with wing extensions, bringing the span to and it was re-designated the Pioneer IA. In this configuration the aircraft can fly as slowly as or as fast as . The original design was simplified for homebuilt construction, retaining the wood and fabric wing construction, but the fuselage was changed to a fiberglass structure. The wingspan was shortened to to allow the wings to be built in a standard deep garage. Unlike on the original design, roll control was changed to ailerons, with upper surface spoilers paired with lower surface dive brakes for glidepath control. Because the aircraft is tailless the

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

range is very narrow. To simplify weight and balance considerations the monowheel landing gear is located on the desired C of G and the pilot's seat is adjustable fore-and-aft. The pilot simply moves the seat until the aircraft balances on the wheel to ensure that the balance is within the center-of-gravity range. The empty weight is with a gross weight of . The aircraft manages a 35:1 glide ratio and a minimum sink of . Starting in 1972 the Pioneer II was made available as plans or as a kit. The kit included a pre-made fiberglass fuselage shell. Reported building times range from 600 to 2000 hours. At least one Pioneer II was modified with a wingspan. Marske has built a prototype Pioneer III, an all-composite variant of the basic design. The Pioneer III is intended to be lighter than the Pioneer II, produce a 20% drag reduction and be optimized for flight in weak lift conditions.

Operational history

Pioneer IIs have made flights of over . In March 2011 there were seven Pioneer IIs registered in the US, along with the original Pioneer IA and the prototype Pioneer 3. In March 2011 there were four Pioneer IIs registered in Canada.

Variants

;Pioneer I :Original model, wingspan ;Pioneer IA :Original model with extended wingspan ;Pioneer II :Redesigned model for home-building, with wingspan ;Pioneer IIA :root: NACA 23012R; tip: NACA 23010R, with short canopy. ;Pioneer IIB :root: NACA 33012R; tip: NACA 33010R, with a longer canopy. ;Pioneer IIC :modified root: NACA 33012R; tip: NACA 33010R sections, with structural refinements and improvements in the cockpit area. ;Pioneer IID :Modified Pioneer II with swept vertical tail and a modified wing leading edge, giving a glide ratio of 35:1. KN Marske Pioneer3-Prototype

;Pioneer III :Improved model with swept tail and all-composite construction and a wingspan, prototype registered in 2004.

Specifications (Pioneer IIC)

References

External links

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Photo of Pioneer II
{{Marske Aircraft 1960s United States sailplanes

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...