Van's Aircraft RV-4
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The Van's RV-4 is an American light homebuilt aircraft supplied in kit form by Van's Aircraft of Aurora, Oregon. It seats two people in a tandem seating configuration with the pilot accommodated in the front seat.<ref name="KitplanesDec2011">Vandermeullen, Richard: 2011 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide, Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 74. Belvoir Publications. Template:ISSN</ref>
The Van's RV series has become the most popular kit-built aircraft in the world.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:As of, the RV-4 is the fourth most popular RV model.<ref name="VansFirstFlights"/>
As of November 2022, 1446 RV-4s had been completed and flown worldwide.<ref name="VansFirstFlights"/>
Development
Richard VanGrunsven designed the RV-4 in the mid 1970s as a two-seat development of the single-seat RV-3. The RV-4 prototype first flew in August 1979.
The RV-4 is a new design based upon the concepts proven in the RV-3 and is not merely a stretched RV-3. The RV-4 airframe will accept a range of engines up to Template:Convert, including the Lycoming O-360. The RV-4 has a new wing, with increased wingspan and wing area over the RV-3. The RV-4 is designed for sport aerobatics.
The RV-4 has proven to be a capable cross country aircraft in service, able to carry two modest sized people and baggage on longer trips. RV-4s have been flown around the world, notably by an Australian, Jon Johanson, who completed world-girdling RV-4 flights on two occasions.
Many larger people find the RV-4 cockpit design physically constraining, and as a result VanGrunsven has designed an entire family of derivative designs. The RV-6 was designed to allow side-by-side seating, and the RV-8 was created as an enlarged aircraft that follows the RV-4's philosophy and offers tandem seating in a bigger aircraft.
Unlike most later RV series designs, RV-4 kits are only available with conventional landing gear, although some may have been constructed in tricycle configuration by builders. At least two RV-4s have also been built with retractable landing gear (mostly for the engineering challenge, as the performance gains were modest).
Variants
- RV-4
- Basic version
- Harmon Rocket II
- Higher performance derivative of the RV4, with clipped wings, a Template:Convert Lycoming IO-540 engine and a razorback turtledeck.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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