Scaled Composites Catbird

on the tail.

The was derived from design originally created for Beechcraft with the aim of replacing the long-produced Bonanza [ [http://aerofiles.com/_rutan.html Aerofiles] ] , and when in 1988 the then Beechcraft-owned Scaled was sold to Rutan in partnership with the Wyman-Gordon Company, Rutan also acquired a number of the designs, including Model 81. The aircraft won the CAFE Foundation's 1988 California CAFE 400 race flown by Mike Melvill, in which aircraft compete for performance efficiency, as measured by fuel consumption, speed and payload. [ [http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/rutan_catbird.php Aviastar Rutan Model 81 Catbird] ] Piloted by Dick Rutan, it subsequently won the 1993 CAFE Challenge with a record score and a speed of convert|210.73|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on, fuel consumption of 20.15 mpg and a payload of 976.63 pounds. [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:mXYVTieCQisJ:members.eaa.org/home/flight_reports/trophies.html+rutan+catbird&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us Seeley, Brien, "A Tale of Two Trophies"] cached at Google] [ [http://www.cafefoundation.org/v2/pav_orderfromchaos.php "Order from Chaos", The CAFE Foundation] ]

Catbird set two world records, which as of August 2008, still stand. The first was in Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) class C-1b (land planes with takeoff weight of between 500 and 1000 kg) over a 2,000 km closed course. For this record, set at Mojave piloted by Dick Rutan, a speed of 401.46 km/h was achieved. The second record was set in class C-1c, for aircraft between 1000 and 1750 kg takeoff weight, over the same course but piloted by Mike Melvill, at a speed of 413.78 km/h. [ [http://records.fai.org/general_aviation/aircraft.asp?id=228 FAI records database] ]

The aircraft is currently stored inverted from the ceiling of Scaled Composites' Mojave hangar.

References

External links

* [http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=Rutan%20M-81%20Catbird&u=type Images of Catbird at AirVenture]