Jim Wauford

Vari-Eze N489EZ built by James C. (Jim) Wauford - completed in 1990 with first flight in January 1991. 

The airplane is Powered by a continental O-200 with a Great American 56 X 68 prop.  Fuel capacity is 22 gallons,  Empty weight is 705 pounds – somewhat heavy for a Vari-Eze.  Top speed is 160 MPH – somewhat slow for a Vari-Eze.  But the airplane is sooo much fun to fly.  It’s also eze to fly, but takeoffs and landings require a little different technique than Cessna types. 

The Vari-Eze was Burt Rutan’s first  composite design.  Prior to the Vari-Eze, Rutan had designed a canard airplane with a pusher prop.  Because of the canard, somewhat reminiscent of the Swiss Viggen, he called the airplane Vari-Viggen.

He then decided to continue the canard feature and take advantage of composite technology.  The result was a prototype “proof of concept” Vari-Eze with a Volkswagen engine.  In the plans version, the engine was changed to Continental O-200. 

In response to customer desires for bigger engines and increased payload, and range Burt designed the slightly larger Long-Eze.  The interesting design evolution was from Vari-Viggen to Vari-Eze to Long Eze.  I find the name evolution to be interesting as well.

Check out my website at: http://users.adelphia.net/~jcwauford/