Canaero Toucan
ultralight aircraft pictures, Canaero Toucan experimental aircraft
images, Canaero Toucan
lightsport aircraft photographs, Lightsport Aircraft Pilot
newsmagazine aircraft directory.
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Lightsport Aircraft Pilot is a directory of aircraft that generally fit into what is described as ultralight aircraft, advanced ultralight aircraft, lightsport aircraft, experimental aircraft, amateur built aircraft, or homebuilt aircraft in the United States and Canada.
These include weight shift aircraft, more commonly known as trikes, powered parachutes, and powered para-gliders.
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Canaero Toucan pictures, images of the
Canaero Toucan ultralight, experimental, lightsport aircraft.
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The Toucan was the creation of our own Peter Corley, the very
close
friend of Dale Kramer that helped Dale design the Lazair (which
was "inspired by" Klaus Hill's Super Floater ultralight sailplane).
After a couple years there, Peter left Ultraflight to go work for bad
boy Larry Newman, where he helped design the Falcon, especially the
wings. If you have ever looked at the Falcon's wings, you'll see the
Lazair's influence. Also, instead of the anti-drag box at the root
like the Lazair, the Falcon has a long, tubular aluminum tube that
extends from the root up through the wing to the front spar. That
was "borrowed" from a Lazair wing redesign by Dale, and he was so
unhappy about it, he decided not to use it because he thought people
would think he copied it from Peter!
Peter left Larry and his bunch in California to return to Canada to
finally design and produce his own design, the Toucan. I believe that
was in late 1983, as I remember Peter still in California while I
spent that summer working for Ultraflight. The Toucan was a tandem, two place
inline twin utilizing Rotax 277 engines. The wingspan was 38
and a half feet, wing area 180 sq. ft. Empty weight was
almost 400 lb. with a useful load of about 475 lb. With the
inline thrust line, it was claimed that the Toucan could
actually climb about 200 fpm on one engine at gross. Cruise
speeds were only in the 55-60 mph range. Solo climb on both
engines was very good, though, at over 1000 fpm! It was a high wing,
twin boom, tricycle gear plane. The wings showed their Lazair/Falcon
heritage. One cool thing was that the wings were covered on the top
with TEDLAR, and on the bottom with Mylar! The early prototypes had
an aluminum tube fuselage, but the later kits were to have welded
steel tubing.
Sadly, Peter was killed late the next year while doing some follow up
testing when a fitting in a lift strut failed. Because he was not
planning on doing any extreme maneuvers, just record some numbers, he
left his chute in the trunk of his car. Stories had it he left a nut
off of an attach bolt, while the official line was a fitting failed.
I've always had a hard time believing Peter left the nut loose.
Although Peter flew like a maniac, he was always a careful maniac. I,
for one, was very saddened by the loss of Peter, who in the early
days of Ultraflight helped make it a fun and exciting place. He was
only in his late twenties when we lost him.
Peter's company was called Canaero Dynamics Aircraft, based in
Ontario. Peter's brother ran the operation after his death. Kitplanes
ran a story on the Toucan in it's November 1986 issue (which supplied
the above specifications), so I guess they survived for several
years. I have no idea how many aircraft and kits were produced, but
the article mentions that the factory built 12 prototypes. Kit building times
were claimed to be in the 200-400 hour range.
Chappy in Virginia Lazair #25
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To view the
pictures, images of the Canaero Toucan click on the smaller
images and they will enlarge. To return to the index page for the Canaero Toucan click on Canaero Toucan Index link, to view
video of the Canaero Toucan click on the Video link, to
return to the Main Index click on the Lightsport Aircraft
Pilot link. |
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