Epic Aircraft’s Rick Schramek announced that the first two “customer-built” Victory and Escape turbine aircraft had been completed and were displayed at Sun ‘n Fun. The Victory is a single-engine turbofan with a fuselage-mounted Pratt & Whitney PW600 engine. According to Schramek, the Victory aircraft, the first to be built and flown, arrived at the show with 48 hours of flight time. Initial specifications have the Victory truing 330 knots, but Schramek said the early flight testing showed it to be a “340-knot-plus” aircraft.Epic also showed the first “customer-built” Escape turboprop single. It’s a smaller cousin to the Epic LT. The Escape uses a 1000-shaft-horsepower Honeywell turbine and Hartzell prop. Claimed performance is 365 knots top cruise, 300 KTAS economy cruise.In addition, Schramek announced several follow-on models that are in the “market survey” phase. These include a twin-engine version of the turboprop Escape (see the model in photos), a twin-engine version of the full-size LT and something called a BLT (for “Big LT”). “Think King Air 350 sized cabin with at least 1250 shaft horsepower each side.” Finally, the company showed a drawing of an “Eclipse killer” twin turbofan VLJ.
In Case You Missed It
Around the Patch
Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook highlights an intriguing product that caught his eye at AirVenture Oshkosh 2007, and he reiterates the difficulty of bringing new engines to market.
Builder Liability and You
There are ways to protect yourself from lawsuits when you sell a homebuilt aircraft. These include accurate and complete documentation of the building process, adherence to manufacturers instructions during the build, a good record of safe flight over a period of time, third party liability insurance protection and a signed liability waiver.
