The Viking Dragonfly is an American amateur-built aircraft, designed by Bob Walters Bill Cox : "...Bob Walters, an ex-Navy fighter pilot with a penchant for designing his own airplanes. Walters came up with his two-seat adaptation of the Quickie..." in Homebuilt Aircraft, March 1985, "New legs for a Dragonfly", page 18 and produced by Viking Aircraft LLC of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The aircraft is supplied as a kit or as plans for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, page 284-285. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.
Design and development The Dragonfly is a two-seater aircraft that features a tandem wing layout with a forward wing mounted low and the other behind the cockpit in a shoulder position, a two-seats-in-side-by-side configuration enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy, fixed landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration. The cockpit is wide
The aircraft is constructed from composites, based on construction techniques pioneered by Burt Rutan at Rutan Aircraft Factory (RAF). The airframe design is visually similar to the RAF's Quickie 2, which was developed independently, but the Dragonfly has larger airfoils and a smaller engine, resulting in a slower but more docile handling aircraft. Its forward span wing employs a GU25-5(11)8 mod airfoil, when the aft wing (span 22 ft) uses an Eppler 1212 airfoil. Both wings have a total area of . Standard engines used include the Volkswagen air-cooled engine and the Jabiru 2200 four-stroke powerplants. Construction time from the supplied kit is estimated as 700 hours, while from plans is estimated at over 1200 hours.
Operational history The Dragonfly was given the Outstanding New Design Award at the EAA Convention in 1980."General Flight" Flight International, 1 November 1980 p1681 By 1998, 500 examples of all variants were reported as flying.
Variants
Dragonfly Mk I Original version with main landing gear mounted in fairings at the lower wing tips. Operations require paved runways and wide taxiways due to widely spaced main wheels. Dragonfly Mk II Version with conventional landing gear. Dragonfly Mk III Version with tricycle landing gear.
Specifications (Mark III Millenium)
See also Similar aircraft Rutan Quickie QAC Quickie Q2
References
Jackson, Paul. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 2003–2004. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Information Group, 2003. .
External links
Photo of a Dragonfly Mk III