The Rutan Model 61 Long-EZ is a tandem 2-seater homebuilt aircraft designed by Burt Rutan's Rutan Aircraft Factory.
The Long-EZ has a canard layout, with a delta wing and wingtip rudders, and a pusher engine and propelleor. The tricycle landing gear has fixed main wheels with streamlined spats, and a retractable nosewheel. Its predecessor was the VariEze, plans of which were first available to homebuilders in 1976. The prototype, N79RA,of the Long-EZ first flew on June 12, 1979. The Long... The Rutan Model 61 Long-EZ is a tandem 2-seater homebuilt aircraft designed by Burt Rutan's Rutan Aircraft Factory.
The Long-EZ has a canard layout, with a delta wing and wingtip rudders, and a pusher engine and propelleor. The tricycle landing gear has fixed main wheels with streamlined spats, and a retractable nosewheel. Its predecessor was the VariEze, plans of which were first available to homebuilders in 1976. The prototype, N79RA,of the Long-EZ first flew on June 12, 1979. The Long-EZ was a plans-only kitplane, and several variants of the basic design have surfaced over the years.
The Long-EZ was modern, high performance, custom built long range aircraft featuring the latest advances in aerodynamics and structure to provide good utility, economy, comfort, simplicity and flight safety. The aircraft uses one of two proven certified aircraft engines, the continental O-200 (100 hp) and the Lycoming O-235 (115 hp. ) It has an alternator powered electrical system and can be equipped with an electric engine starter. lt’s cockpit layout is designed to compliment pilot work load with throttle, mixture, carb heat, pitch trim and landing controls on the left side console and a side stick controller on the right console. Seating provides correct armrest, lumbar, thigh and headrest support allowing “recliner chair‘ comfort not found in conventional aircraft seats. This allows long, fatigue free flights. The inboard portion of the large wing strakes are used as baggage areas accessible from the front and rear cockpit.
This renditon features:
- Highly detailed internal and external visual models - 8K high resolution textures - 4 liveries with customizable registration markings - Custom sound package (using legacy sound pipeline - WWise sounds not supported at launch) - Native Microsoft Flight Simulator flight model *
* - at the moment of the initial release, MSFS does not properly support canard planes - the plane may exhibit a behavior that may differ from the real aircraft in extereme conditions
RELEASE NOTES:
Version 1. 12 December 15th 2020
- Added sunglasses to pilot figures
- Reintroduced canopy scatches (hopefully done much better this time)
- Changed model name to comply with Microsoft convention
- Increased engine volume when in virtual cockpit - Minor tweaks to sound spatialization
Version 1. 11 November 25th 2020
- Added wing pods: to make them appear, add weight to the Wing Pods station in the fuel and weight settings
- Vastly reduced elevator trim effectiveness following feedback from version 1. 10
- Several tweaks to improve the behavior at high speeds
- Reduced rudder effectiveness, especially during takeoff run - Reduced canopy sound attenuation (considered excessive by some users) - Added traditional (non-canard) flight model files for users who may prefer those settings (files are in the “backup old flight model” folder)
Version 1. 10 November 20h 2020 - Redone flight model to implement new canard settings - Minor tweaks to engine performance - Minor tweaks to aircraft maneouverability - Increased detail and polycount of several cockpit objects - Retextured cockpit with higher res textures - Fixed miscellaneous animations and mouse areas - Added missing lubber line to compass - Minor improvements to sound package - Miscellaneous fixes in configuration files - Cleaned canopy textures - Replaced library pilot figures with custom models including possibility to remove the pilot figures (beware not to tilt the aircraft!) - Sound package entirely redone in WWise
Version 1. 02
October 16th 2020
- Fixed missing rain effects in the canopy - Fixed throttle lever animation - Fixed CoG limits in UI - Fixed wrong shadowing in Thunderbirds livery - Added "green checkers" livery - Added "military camo" livery
