The Scaled Composites Model 81 Catbird is a high-efficiency five-seat single-engine all-composite

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

aircraft designed by

Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the recor ...

. It is unusual in that it incorporates both a small forward wing and a small conventional

horizontal stabilizer A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lifting surface located on the tail ( empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...

on the tail.

Design and development

The Catbird was designed by Burt Rutan while his company, Scaled Composites, was owned by Beechcraft. The design was intended to replace the long-produced

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on ...

. The financial situation of Beech at the time, and competing projects, prevented consideration of commercial production. In 1988 Beechcraft sold Scaled Composites to the partnership of Rutan and the Wyman-Gordon Company, who also acquired the rights to a number of the designs, including Model 81 Catbird. The aircraft was stored inverted from the ceiling of Scaled Composites' Mojave hangar until April 2011. The aircraft was restored to flying condition by Zach Reeder, Jim Reed and Mike Melvill. Catbird's second first flight was July 7, 2011.

World records

Catbird holds the world record for speed over a closed circuit of 5,000 km without payload of 334.44 km/h, set in 2014 in Category C-1c, Landplanes with take-off weights from 1000 to 1750 kg. The aircraft won the

CAFE Foundation The CAFE Foundation is a U.S. non-profit aviation development and flight test organization based in Windsor, California. CAFE was an acronym for "Competition in Aircraft Flight Efficiency" and became later "Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency." ...

's 1988 California CAFE 400 race flown by

Mike Melvill Michael Winston Melvill (born November 30, 1940, in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a world-record-breaking pilot and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShip ...

, in which aircraft compete for performance efficiency, as measured by fuel consumption, speed and payload. Piloted by

Dick Rutan Richard Glenn Rutan (July 1, 1938 – May 3, 2024) was an American military aviator and officer, as well as a record-breaking test pilot who in 1986 piloted the Voyager aircraft on the first non-stop, non-refueled around-the-world flight with ...

, it subsequently won the 1993 CAFE Challenge with a record score and a speed of , fuel consumption of 20.15 mpg (US miles and gallons) and a payload of .Seeley, Brien, ''A Tale of Two Trophies''
EAA arvhives In 2014, the Catbird set another record, for speed over a closed 2,000 km course, from Mojave to

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (formerly the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In), or just Oshkosh, is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at the Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wiscon ...

, with an average speed of 339.50 km/h (211 mph).

Specifications (Model 81 Catbird)

References

External links

Images of Catbird
at

Catbird returns to Oshkosh, JAMES WYNBRAND, 2011

Burt Rutan's Catbird
{{Scaled Composites

Catbird Several unrelated groups of songbirds are called catbirds because of their wailing calls, which resemble a cat's meowing. The genus name ''Ailuroedus'' likewise is from the Greek for 'cat-singer' or 'cat-voiced'. Australasian catbirds are ...

Three-surface aircraft Canard aircraft Rutan aircraft 1980s United States experimental aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1988 Single-engined tractor aircraft

Design and development

World records

Specifications (Model 81 Catbird)

See also

References

External links