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On June 20th eight similar Burt Rutan-style experimental
aircraft arrived at the Township Airport for what has become
an annual event, a gathering of friendly owners of this
responsive, highly efficient, and very maneuverable design.
Rutan achieved fame for his Voyageur, the first plane to
fly nonstop around the world. These Cozys and LongEZs are
similar in their radical approach. Flying at 160 knots,
they cover a thousand miles at a hop. Each one is built
from scratch from plans, a process usually taking 5 to 10
years. Occasionally one comes on the market, typically at
a price in excess of $50,000; there might be a thousand
in existence, most in Canada and the USA with a few in Europe
and elsewhere.
This group of pilots arrived here from Minnesota and Wisconsin
and Ohio and Pennsylvania, and set up their tents on a mowed section
of lawn on which Bob Banville, who once owned one, had built a
stone fire circle. Every so often a few would meander into town
to see what was going on, but generally they were content to sit
back and see who else might arrive, literally from out of the
blue.
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