Richard E. "Dick" VanGrunsven (born 1939) is an American aircraft designer and
kit plane manufacturer. The number of VanGrunsven-designed homebuilt aircraft produced each year in North America exceeds the combined production of all commercial
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
companies.
In 1973 VanGrunsven founded the aircraft manufacturing company
Van's Aircraft, and in 2012 became the founding president of the
Aircraft Kit Industry Association (AKIA), an American aviation advocacy association.
[Bernard, Mary and Suzanne B. Bopp: ''Q&A with AKIA President Dick VanGrunsven'', Kitplanes, Volume 29, Number 12, December 2012, page 28-29. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851]
Life and career
Richard VanGrunsven grew up on a farm near
Cornelius, Oregon
Cornelius is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States. Located in the Portland metropolitan area, the city's population was 11,869 at the 2010 census. The city lies along Tualatin Valley Highway between Forest Grove to the west and ...
and is the son of a
Portland area farmer. He has seven brothers and sisters. His father had taken flying lessons prior to getting married and his stories inspired Richard and his older brother Jerry to acquire an old
Piper J-3 Cub
The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...
, and later a
Taylorcraft
Taylorcraft Aviation is an airplane manufacturer that has been producing aircraft for more than 70 years in several locations.
The company builds small single-engined airplanes. The Taylorcraft design is a conventional layout: high-wing, fab ...
. Richard learned to fly in 1956 from a 670-foot airstrip on the farm, acquiring his pilot certificate at age 16. His first aeronautical business was providing wheel pants for Taylorcraft. He graduated from the
University of Portland in 1961 with an
engineering degree. He then joined the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...
that same year. VanGrunsven originally planned to become a fighter pilot, but a minor color vision problem that would have been acceptable in civilian aviation, but not to the Air Force, led instead to him serving three years as a communications officer. After serving in the Air Force, he worked as a designer for
Hyster, an Oregon manufacturer of lift trucks. His free time was devoted to learning more about aviation. He now has earned Chief Flying Instructor, multi-engine, and Airline Transport Pilot ratings and has
logged over 12,000 hours of flight time.
Towards the mid-1960s, VanGrunsven purchased a
Stits Playboy
The Stits SA-3A Playboy (also called the Stitts SA-3A Playboy) is a single seat, strut-braced low-wing monoplane that was designed by Ray Stits for amateur construction. The aircraft was designed and the prototype was completed in a three-month ...
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 ...
and modified it by installing a larger engine. Later, he modified the aircraft by installing cantilevered aluminum wings with flaps, creating the
RV-1 in 1965. A few years later he started a clean-sheet design, the all-aluminum
RV-3 single-place aircraft, which VanGrunsven introduced at the 1972
EAA AirVenture Airshow in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat. The city had a population of 66,816 in 2020, making it the ninth-largest city in Wisconsin. It is also adjacent to the Town of Oshkosh.
History
Oshkosh was ...
, where he won the "Best Aerodynamic Detailing" award for the RV-3. The aircraft set new standards of aircraft performance in the homebuilt industry, and became the genesis design for the rest of the RV-series, all which strongly resemble the RV-3.
In 1973 he founded
Van's Aircraft. The RV-3 was followed by the
RV-4 tandem aircraft in 1979. Van's Aircraft continued to produce new designs with good all-round performance, reasonable costs, and continuous improvement in kit quality, developing the RV series all the way up to the latest aircraft, the 2012
RV-14.
VanGrunsven commutes regularly to his company in
Aurora, Oregon
Aurora is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States. Before being incorporated as a city, it was the location of the Aurora Colony, a religious commune founded in 1856 by William Keil and John E. Schmit. William named the settlement after h ...
using aircraft of his own design. His company has sold over 18,000 kits or sets of plans, with over 7,500 aircraft completed.
Van's homebuilt designs are built in enough numbers that several groups, such as "Freedom Flight" and the thirteen-member "Team RV", have organized all-RV formation demonstration teams.
In 2006 VanGrunsven was inducted into the Oregon Aviation Hall of Fame.
In November 2013 VanGrunsven was appointed to the board of directors of the
Experimental Aircraft Association
The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. Since its inception, it has grown internationally with over 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapt ...
(EAA).
That same year he, along with
Dale Klapmeier,
Burt Rutan
Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the recor ...
,
Bob Hoover
Robert Anderson Hoover (January 24, 1922 – October 25, 2016) was an American fighter pilot, test pilot, flight instructor, and record-setting air show aviator.
Hoover flew Spitfires in the United States Army Air Forces during World W ...
and others, launched a campaign and website made for honoring EAA's former long-time president
Tom Poberezny
Thomas Paul Poberezny (October 3, 1946 – July 25, 2022) was an American aerobatic world champion, as well as chairman of the annual Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Fly-In and Convention (now named AirVenture) from 1977 to 2011 and p ...
.
''Flying'' magazine ranked VanGrunsven 22 on its list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation" and has labelled him the "undisputed leader in kit aircraft manufacturing".
"51 Heroes of Aviation."
''Flying''. July 24, 2013. Retrieved: January 12, 2018.
References
External links
AKIA official site
Van's Aircraft official site
2012 article from ''Aircraft Spruce''
Video Interview with VanGrunsven
{{DEFAULTSORT:VanGrunsven, Richard
1939 births
Living people
American aerospace engineers
American aviation businesspeople
People from Cornelius, Oregon
People from Forest Grove, Oregon
University of Portland alumni
United States Air Force officers
Military personnel from Oregon