An alternative airframe...thoughts?

[jdub]

Had a thought I'd like to share. 


I still have yet to find anyone who owns the rights to the DA-5. The plans are floating around to those that look for them.  It'd be an easy conversion to a taildragger with a Wittman style motor mount.  Making it a midwing for a good racing aerodynamics might be an issue, but I'd bet it could be overcome.  It would be a neat looking all metal V-tail once the lines are cleaned up.  I'd envision a DA-9 if I were to do this.  DA-9 is one slick looking torpedo that would need to be a little bigger, about DA-5 size...


On a side note, I am still enamored with DA-11.  How much more out of the box could one get?  Hey, its a v...twin.


For those that haven't seen them:

Attachments:

[Supervee]

To fit into Supervee's airframe rules, any design would have to have 75 sq. ft. of wing area, among other things....How much does the Davis have?

[jdub]

Not enough at 57. Empty weight 460 with an a-65. Wing loading was higher. While not impossible to design a different wing, it'd be a little time consuming.

[Supervee]

Probably better off to start with a clean sheet of drafting paper, I would think....

[dmar836]

That plane is interesting and I was impressed by the ingenuity when I saw it on TV. It reminds me of what EAA guys were building in the 60s.
I also agree that it would be more trouble to shoe horn it into the SV specs than to use an existing design. Check out the FV/SV specs. A search would then find more designs than you would think that qualify - mostly single seat home built sport planes of the 60s. Don't forget, a VW engine is required too. Adapting that to a lightweight design would be far easier than redesigning a wing IMO.
Dave