The Quikkit Glass Goose is an American two-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

amphibious aircraft An amphibious aircraft or amphibian is an aircraft (typically fixed-wing) that can take off and land on both solid ground and water, though amphibious helicopters do exist as well. Fixed-wing amphibious aircraft are seaplanes ( flying boats ...

, designed by Tom Scott and marketed for homebuilding by Quikkit of

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

.. The Glass Goose is based on the earlier Sea Hawker, which was designed by Garry LeGare in 1982 and sold through his firm Aero Gare as the Sea Hawk and, later, Sea Hawker. LeGare sold the rights to the aircraft to

Aero Composites Aero is a Greek prefix relating to flight and air. In British English, it is used as an adjective related to flight (e.g., as a shortened substitute for aeroplane). Aero, Ærø, or Aeros may refer to: Aeronautics Airlines and companies * Aero (P ...

in 1986, which sold them again two years later to (unrelated)

Aero Composite Technologies Aero Composite Technologies was a kitplane manufacturer based in Somerset, Pennsylvania. It purchased the rights to the Sea Hawker amphibious aircraft from Aero Composites in 1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil plat ...

..Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015–16'', p. 121. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

Tom Scott purchased a Sea Hawker kit in October 1984 and completed the aircraft in March 1986, constructing the aircraft according to the plans. He was not happy with the resulting aircraft and over five years incorporated improvements to address performance and stability shortcomings. The final design has more wing area, a larger hull surface and improved pylon aerodynamics, plus many other improvements. This redesign became the Glass Goose kit. The Glass Goose features a cantilever biplane layout, without

interplane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s, a two-seats-in-

side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

enclosed cockpit under a

bubble canopy A bubble canopy is an aircraft canopy constructed without bracing, for the purpose of providing a wider unobstructed field of view to the pilot, often providing 360° all-round visibility. The designs of bubble canopies can drastically vary; s ...

, retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

and a single engine in

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

. The aircraft is made from composites. Its span wing has an area of . Standard engines used are Lycomings, although the eight-cylinder

Jabiru 5100 The Jabiru 5100 is a lightweight four-stroke horizontally opposed flat-eight air-cooled aircraft engine, manufactured by Jabiru Aircraft. Design and development The engine is direct-drive and is fitted with alternators, silencers, vacuum p ...

and

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

Wankel engine The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an Eccentric (mechanism), eccentric rotary combustion engine, rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. It was invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, and desi ...

s have also been employed.

Specifications (Glass Goose)

References

External links

{{commons category, Quikkit Glass Goose
Official website archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Single-engined pusher aircraft 1980s United States civil utility aircraft Flying boats Amphibious aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Glass Goose Biplanes