KR-1 and KR-2 | |
---|---|
KR-2S | |
Role | Homebuilt |
National origin | United States |
Manufacturer | nVAero |
Designer | Kenneth Rand |
First flight | February 1972 |
Status | In production (2022) |
The Rand Robinson KR-1 is a single-seat, single-engine sport aircraft designed in the United States in the early 1970s and marketed for homebuilding.[1][2][3] A two-seat version is marketed as the KR-2.[1][2][3] It is a low-wing cantilever monoplane of conventional design with an enclosed cockpit and tailwheel undercarriage.[3][4] As originally designed, the main undercarriage units of the KR-1 and basic KR-2 were manually retractable, folding backwards into the wings,[1] while the KR-2T tandem-seat version had fixed tricycle undercarriage.[5] However, some builders choose fixed tailwheel or even fixed tricycle undercarriage for KR-1s and KR-2s.[1][6]
Kits for the KR-1, KR-2 and KR-2S are supplied by nVAero of Mission Viejo, California/Corona, California, United States.[1][7][8]
The KR-1's wings have a two-spar construction; the front spar of spruce, and the rear spar from spruce and plywood.[1][4] The wing ribs are formed from polyurethane foam,[1] and the space around them filled with the same material before the entire wing structure is covered with fabric impregnated with epoxy resin.[4] Similar construction is used in the KR-2, with an RAF 48 airfoil cross-section (some later models have adapted the AS 5046 airfoil, for increased speed at the expense of poorer low-speed handling[1]), and the wings are removable outboard the landing gear.[1] Similar construction is used in the empennage and control surfaces.[1]
The fuselage is built around a wooden framework,[1] the lower part skinned in plywood and the upper part built up of polystyrene foam covered in epoxy-coated fabric.[4] KR-1 builders have the choice of three different upper fuselage configurations: the "fastback" with a turtledeck behind the cockpit, the "pursuit" with a fighter-style bubble canopy, and the "sportsman" with an open cockpit and a small fairing behind it for rollover protection.[9]
The design has proved popular, with over 10,000 sets of plans sold,[1] including 6,000 sets of KR-1 plans and 4,500 sets of KR-2 plans sold by 1979.[2] From these, over 200 KR-1s[4] and 350 KR-2s[10] were flying by 1987. nVAero's founder Steve Glover reported in 2010 that over 2,000 KRs were flying, worldwide.[1]
Plans and kits were still available in 2022.[11]
Data from nVAero[16]
General characteristics
Performance