The Van's RV-4 is an American light
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 ...
supplied in kit form by
Van's Aircraft
Van's Aircraft, Inc. is an American Homebuilt aircraft, kit aircraft manufacturer founded by Richard VanGrunsven in 1973. The Van's RV series aircraft are all-aluminum, low-wing monoplanes of monocoque construction. In 2023, over 11,000 Van's a ...
of
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 ...
. It seats two people in a
tandem
Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...
seating configuration with the pilot accommodated in the front seat.
[Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2011 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 74. Belvoir Publications. ]
The Van's RV series has become the most popular kit-built aircraft in the world. , the RV-4 is the fourth most popular RV model.
As of November 2022, 1446 RV-4s had been completed and flown worldwide.
Development
Richard VanGrunsven
Richard E. "Dick" VanGrunsven (born 1939) is an American aircraft designer and Homebuilt aircraft, kit plane manufacturer. The number of VanGrunsven-designed homebuilt aircraft produced each year in North America exceeds the production of all com ...
designed the RV-4 in the mid 1970s as a two-seat development of the single-seat
RV-3. The RV-4 prototype first flew in August
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
.
The RV-4 is a new design based upon the concepts proven in the RV-3 and is not merely a stretched RV-3. The RV-4 airframe will accept a range of engines up to , including the
Lycoming O-360
The Lycoming O-360 is a family of four-cylinder, direct-drive, horizontally opposed, air-cooled, piston aircraft engines. Engines in the O-360 series produce between , with the basic O-360 producing .
The engine family has been installed in ...
. The RV-4 has a new wing, with increased wingspan and wing area over the RV-3. The RV-4 is designed for sport aerobatics.
The RV-4 has proven to be a capable cross country aircraft in service, able to carry two modest sized people and baggage on longer trips. RV-4s have been flown around the world, notably by an Australian,
Jon Johanson, who completed world-girdling RV-4 flights on two occasions.
Many larger people find the RV-4 cockpit design physically constraining, and as a result VanGrunsven has designed an entire family of derivative designs. The
RV-6 was designed to allow side-by-side seating, and the
RV-8 was created as an enlarged aircraft that follows the RV-4's philosophy and offers tandem seating in a bigger aircraft.
Unlike most later RV series designs, RV-4 kits are only available with
conventional landing gear
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft Landing gear, undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the Center of gravity of an aircraft, center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail ...
, although some may have been constructed in
tricycle configuration by builders. At least two RV-4s have also been built with retractable landing gear (mostly for the engineering challenge, as the performance gains were modest).
Variants
;RV-4
:Basic version
;
Harmon Rocket II
:Higher performance derivative of the RV4, with clipped wings, a
Lycoming IO-540
The Lycoming O-540 is a family of air-cooled six-cylinder, horizontally opposed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter engines of displacement, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. The engine is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Lycoming O-3 ...
engine and a razorback turtledeck.
Specifications (Typical RV-4)
See also
References
External links
*
{{VansAircraft
Homebuilt aircraft
1970s United States civil utility aircraft
RV-04
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1979
Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear
Single-engined piston aircraft