Rutan Solitaire

Specifications

• Span 12.7 m./ 41.75 ft
• Area 9.52 sq. m. / 102.44 sq.ft.
• Aspect ratio 20.78
• Airfoil wing inboard, Roncz 517, outboard 515
• Empty weight 172 kg. / 380 lb.
• Payload 109 kg. / 240 lb.
• Gross weight 281 kg. / 620 lb.
• Wing loading 39.52 kg. / sq. m. / 6.05 lb. / sq. ft.
• Structure foam, glass, honeycomb and epoxy 

Performance

• L/D max. 32 93 kph / 50 kt / 58 mph
• Min. sink 0.75 m/s / 2.5 fps / 1.48 kt
• 73 kph / 43 kt / 49 mph

Other

• Country of origin USA
• Designer Burt Rutan
• No. of seats 1
• No. in the U.S. 5

Rutan’s canard self-launching sailplane attracted much attention when it won the Sailplane Homebuilders Association Design Contest in 1982. The engine, with electric starter for air starting, erects from and retracts into a bay in the forward fuselage by means of electro-hydraulic power. The canard configuration is intended to make the ship virtually stall-proof as the canard stalls before the main wing, causing the ship to pitch nose-down and preventing the main wing from stalling. That, however, does not mean that mishandling cannot cause very high sink rates. The main wing has trailing edge flaps which also operate as spoilers by the leading edge coming above the top surface of the wing when deploying. The unusually efective ‘spoilflap’ trailing edge surfaces provide good glidepath control.