The Questair Venture is a

homebuilt aircraft Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

manufactured by Questair at John Bell Williams Airport in

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. The aircraft first flew on 1 July 1987.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 63. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851

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

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, and used technology from the

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, which Griswold led the design for as well. 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

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.

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. 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

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. 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 (beat by the Nemesis NXT in 2008) * 305 mph for a 100-km circuit * 284 mph for a 1000-km circuit The 100-km and 1000-km records still stand in 2022.

Aircraft on display

EAA AirVenture Museum The EAA Aviation Museum, formerly the EAA AirVenture Museum (or Air Adventure Museum), is a museum dedicated to the preservation and display of historic and experimental aircraft as well as antiques, classics, and warbirds. The museum is lo ...

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, second prototype VentureOgden, 2007, p. 561

Specifications (Venture)

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * *

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.questairventure.com/ 1980s United States civil utility aircraft Low-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1987