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 siteVan's Aircraft official site2012 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