Vickers Wave amphibious light sport aircraft, by Vickers Aircraft.
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- www.ultralightf... - Vickers Wave amphibious light sport aircraft, by Vickers Aircraft.
You cannot ride a Wave today, but 2017 may be the breakout year for this impressively-configured LSA seaplane entry from the other down-under country of New Zealand.
Indeed, principal, Paul Vickers -- the namesake of Vickers Aircraft -- wrote at the end of 2016, "Great strides have been made in the past months here at Vickers. We may have appeared quiet but we have been very busy preparing for 2017, which will prove to be an incredible year."
Paul confirmed, "We have secured funding from the USA that will allow us to expand our operations." He continued, "New machinery for carbon fiber part production and larger premises will streamline our processes." He noted that additional staff was hired to fill key roles to ensure smooth production and timely deliveries.
"I traveled to various U.S. states in 2016 to personally meet with potential investors and found the ideal partner in Florida," said Paul. "Our new partner brings not only a vast wealth of aviation knowledge but incredible American business experience which will ensure a strong and responsible Vickers brand in the USA."
"In this new temperature controlled environment production carbon fiber parts are being prepared in accordance with manufacturing procedures that have been finely tuned over years of development," he explained. "It has always been of extreme importance to maintain control, quality, and cost over all components for the Wave. This has allowed for a modest investment and will result in an actual aircraft that will be both deliverable and affordable provided by an aircraft company that is sustainable."
"We have been developing the processes to produce conforming production components and we are very close to beginning structural testing on production sub-assemblies such as the wing carry thru and rear empennage." Nearby you see a recently infused carbon fiber mold insert just prior to trimming and finishing.
TenCate Advanced Composites USA has joined Vickers as a strategic partner to supply carbon fiber materials for Wave. "TenCate is pleased to support Vickers Aircraft with carbon fiber epoxy prepreg and ancillary composite materials for the development and production of their Light-Sport Aircraft," said David Clarke, CEO of TenCate. "We look forward to their successful introduction of this unique aircraft platform."
"Working with TenCate's superior products will enable us to produce an aircraft which will be of the highest quality yet help keep weight within LSA specifications," noted Paul. "TenCate is a leader in the aerospace composite industry and having them work with us to bring our aircraft to market will help make Wave exceptional."
Most readers know that carbon fiber is wonderful to combine strength with low weight but preparing the material for use on aircraft is an exacting effort.
"We have now acquired a critical part of our production process, a Zund carbon fiber cutting center," said Paul. The Zund cutting machine can cut carbon fiber at an astonishing three feet per second, ink mark part numbers and bar codes to integrate individual pieces of carbon fiber into our inventory system to ensure full traceability and correct placement during laminating." He added that the Zund cutter has the capacity to produce parts for more than 100 aircraft per year.
"We looked globally at other industry leaders and concluded that Zund was a stand out within composite manufacturing companies," reported Darryn Todd, VP of Composites for Vickers.
Along with the fresh funding Vickers has also appointed the American distributor for Wave. "We are very pleased to have such strong support from the USA," exclaimed Paul. "We are equally excited to have appointed a U.S. distributor in Florida, the ideal location for Vickers Aircraft USA."
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www.ultralightf... - Vickers Wave amphibious light sport aircraft, by Vickers Aircraft.
• Vickers Wave amphibiou...
Icon 5A, MVP, Vickers... Good stuff!
I am from new zealand and have been to his factory to check it out and meet paul and look into it as I was about to put a deposit down on A5 . What I can say is from a quick look this looks similar to to A5 , but in reality this is nothing like it ,this thing is legit! Factory is amazing ..so far ahead in so many areas.
Plane is about to blow the socks off the industry , landing gear is revolutionary , underweight and huge Hp with its lofty wing is gunna be like a racecar.. Water thrusters,parachute it's got it all ..blew me away
Classic new Zealander though to not talk up his product!! Ha ,said that he doesn’t want to tease industry by having mock set ups , campaigns etc just going to release first production one on market minimal exposure till then .
So did you cancel your A5 order and purchase the Wave?
Yes , I was lucky enough to get out of commitment with the A5 and lock in an agreement for the wave.. After really looking into spec's and capabilities of A5 (they have a lot of issues with it that need fixing) you realise it falls way short of wave. I could make a list if you wanted..ha ha
Sure, like to see list.
like to see the list
For you to have switched, you must have been quite impressed. I will certainly keep an eye on the Vickers Wave, and hope that its stays competitively priced. Thanks for sharing!
I live about 10 minutes from the production facility at the Hamilton airport.... Think I must go pay Mr. Vickers a visit and see what he's up to over there....
You should!! Paul was really welcoming showing me around and answering my millions of questions.. I was extremely skeptical , but after finding out everything I couldn't walk away without locking 1 in!! It's closer to release than people think..
well.... its been 7 months.....
I'm all for competition. Similar to the A5. I'm game! Can't wait to see it. Thanks Cameron for the info below.
I was sold on the A5 until they nearly went bust and the price went skywards. So I have been really interested in the excellent Searey and flew it last year at Oshkosh - brilliant aircraft except the folding wings take 45 minutes to fold.I accidentally came across the Wave and being New Zealand based, looks to be a very attractive option for me.
Something I can tell you about the NZ psychology that Americans may not understand, In NZ we TALK DOWN our achievements. It is seen as very bad form to sell yourself up or boast about what you have - completely the opposite of America. I fully expect that this aircraft will probably be ready ahead of when he says it will and perform better than he says it will - it is just what Kiwi's do - they let their actions do the talking, not sales hype.
I am really looking forward to visiting the factory - if the aircraft is anything like what has been shown so far, it will be brilliant.
The few extra options over the Icon A5, as seen in this video, would be enough for me to go with the Vickers. Just the difference in doors is pretty awesome. Bow thrusters, etc. I am sure that by the time it is in production, will be more options to drool over.
start with the wing loading . and work from there .. try to concentrate on the important stuff . frills don't fly
Dan, It has been said, I still like the A5
James Baxter ...So do I.
Waiting to see a real one, in the air.
I know I have a nerve complaining because this is free on RUclips, but all we saw were the computer animated images of the a/c. You were standing right in front of the Vickers and we didn't get at least a "once over" with YOUR camera to get an impression what it actually looks like.
Hi Carmelo. That is not a Wave behind us; it is not ready yet. This was intended to be background info on the designer, Paul Vickers. We will certainly do more when the aircraft is ready. One step at a time...
Thanks Dan for responding. I admire all you do for the LSA community.
Very impressive. Looks great.
Not exactly original, it's basically an Icon A5.
Jabari Hunt You're not wrong.
It is, but from the stats the Vickers would appear to have more than double the range of the Icon (thanks to a larger tank), a higher cruising speed (thanks to a more powerful engine), and be lighter overall (which also helps with the previously mentioned points).
Nothing is original in aircraft any more.
The A5 is ripped off from the Spanish Colyaer Freedom. They bought one, reversed engineered it - then returned it and wanted their money back. A short time later, they announced the A5.
prettymuchballin The anti-stall feature is a big difference though.
I dig the intro music
I see that Vickers is based in New Zealand, but seems Vickers made aircraft for the British in WWII such as the Vickers Wellington, I'd say the Vickers Wave is the British ICON A5.
New Zealanders do not see themselves as british so I would say you are completely wrong
I recall Molt Taylor's COOT
Nice
I went to their website. They're no where near production. I'll bet by the time it's available (no time in the next 10 years) price will double, then triple, then quadruple - just like the A5. You won't be able to get one without waiting 10 years, then it will cost $30K per year to insure it.
Pipe dream, just like the A5.
They're just like concept cars - they get you real excited, but never make it to production.
I support Vickers design, but you are right, the speed they are moving at is atrocious, worse than Raptor. Wait, no one is worse than Raptor.
I got news for you......just about ANY amphibious airplane cost 30k per year to insure ! I know I used to have a lake amphib. Once you’ve built up some time in amphibious operations the cost comes down.....a little. A great deal of Amphib pilots only can afford to carry liability insurance.
Kevlar and carbon fiber are expensive. And what is the cruise speed fuel consumption?
This thing will be amazing if they can pull off all those specs.
A5- manual wing fold
Vickers- automatic wing fold= SEXXAAAYYYY
I'm sorry but you taxi into a busy marina, cruise up to dock and auto fold those wings...you are getting laid that day!
On paper it appears to beat the A5 in every way except the anti roll wing cuffs? Even has AOA indication and basic auto pilot. BRS standard on Vickers, optional on A5. Vickers being a hull engineer it will likely outperform A5 in "jetski" mode as well I expect. I'd give up the "jetski" function to have all else on this plane though.
I love the A5 but when the price ballooned to quarter million dollars (which will eventually find Icon in bankruptcy proceedings) I gave up on ever owning one and figured I'd have to settle on an Aventura 2 to satiate my amphib desires. If Vickers can keep the price tag below the stratosphere people will beg/borrow/steal to get one in their garage.
I anxiously await thee prototype :/
Isn't this a: "To little, too late." scenario? I mean: the Icon A5 is "hitting the stores" and here we are looking at a very similar Aircraft basically still on the drawing board? I don't know much about this industry, but it certainly seems "to little, too late" to me? I think the Icon A5 has set the bar pretty high, so my first thought was: Why bother? Again: I know very little about the Aircraft industry (I only know I really, really want an Icon A5) so please feel free to enlighten me if I have missed the point of this Aircraft...
From what I have been following of the A5, they quickly discovered the design was not as easy to manufacture as they hoped and they had to slow production. I think the backlog is out to the end of the decade if you get in line now.
Lol. Do some research on the A5. They've had all kinds of problems and have more than tripled in price compared to what they were telling their customers who first put money down. They are up around 400k now, so as far as "hitting the stores", they are still producing them slowly at a much higher price than they told people. IMO the Wave and the MVP would both be nicer to have and could easily bury Icon if they could produce them cheaper and at a higher rate. So no, it's not even close to too little, too late. Huge opportunity for anyone who figure things out with a similar airplane.
Icon A5 costs 125K, if the Vickers can be sold for 25K he will shut Icon down.
Last I checked, an A5 was closer to $185k plus a few years of inflation adjustment.
Try $275K if you don't want to wait 4 years and let them hold on to a big chunk of change during your wait.
Not a chance in hell it's going to hit $25k
$25k?!? Ignorant. The engine and prop costs that much. The avionics cost that much.
A5 is reaching close to $400k now
I like
did they really just plagiarize the Icon A5??
The A5 crusher. It's called the wave cuz that's the last thing an A5 pilot sees before he's swamped by 180 lycoming horsies
Continental Titan, not Lycoming
You mean a Rotax 915.
how many seats
Who cares if it's original or not. I just care about the price and specs on this aircraft. And oh yeah I like the color scene as well...
makhmoorji ...Yes, if they can get one up. I would use what I had to bring it and sell it to the North American market.
Price price.Chuck smith
Very original....
That ia an imitation of Icon 5 but Ico 5 is much better
So this guy basically is selling the Icon A5?
Is this a real air craft? Or just some pipe dream. After all, I haven't seen one of them.
Gee.......looks an awful lot like an Icon A5.
Twister051 ....It is. But so what?
Twister051 ....But its black and orange. My favorite colors.😀
Similar to the icon
ich liebe das Flugzeug A5 ich bin in Hamburg Germany ,meine Heimat
Enrique McAllister Moreno ....It is exactly like the Icon. That is not a bad thing.
ICON A5 copy..
There's no way this actually comes to market... prove me wrong
the aircraft is not flying yet... so, tell me about yourself instead...
Well Dan, I'm a business man... and my dad once built a plane, so, i guess that makes me qualified.
He isn't asking for money, nor investors, hell he's barely even advertising, so what's your problem?
Save your energy for scumbags like Synergy and Raptor who take people's money and damage the industry.
Strange ... absolutely copied from Icon A5....
Orest Andersen ....So what?
Republic RC-3 Seabee, from the 1940s. That's the aircraft all of these are copying.
Things don't seem to have progressed much from the 1946 Seabee-but then it's only been 72 years. Let's see-215 hp, 103 mph 75% cruise, range 560 miles, rate of climb 700 ft/min, 4 seats (!), price $6,000 1946 dollars, about the cost of three cars of the time. Hmmm.
hahaha.... ICON rip off
Two totally different aircraft! The only thing similar is they are both pusher aircraft.
Light Sport and Ultralight Flyer yeah. Ok
The Vickers has 180 hp, which is what the ICON needs. If the specs are correct, the Vickers has 30% less drag also. Aux power is required for State and Federal lakes inside 500 feet from occupied beaches and docks. The ICON fails to meet BASIC requirements for access to docks and beaches.
That said, I think the configuration is NOT valid. The lower sponsons block out the tail during deep stall and results in a spin that is likely not recoverable. This in part is what killed the ICON designer. People never learn. Just make a scale model of it and fly it to scale weight and....you will find some bad characteristics that are not safe. Sorry, won't work.
The best way to think about the Vickers approach vs Icon, is Nissan Leaf vs Tesla model S: old school empirical engineering vs pragmatic integral engineering.
Much of the refinement comes from the fact that manufacturing anything in NZ successfully requires extreme levels of commitment, and practical imagination. Minuscule sources of investment capital ensures that doing the job right first time, using the right materials, and a consolidated design is the only way to achieve production goals.
As any aircraft builder knows well, getting an aircraft certified by authorities to fly requires dump truck quantities of documentation, detailing the engineering and performance of of every part from design through manufacture through to production through to flight maintenance. Vickers have as mentioned in the video developed a documentation process which is integral to the manufacture of the aircraft, and which makes manufacturing defects negligible. If the design meets the design criteria, the finished aircraft will meet those same standards.
This is bringing bespoke craftsmanship into aircraft production the same way Musk stepped past the cobbled together vehicles produced in the car industry.
If you have a descent chunk of capital to invest, VickersAircraft may just be that sure thing, because there is much more than just the Wave being developed, and from what I was told last week ( Jan 2021), they are weeks away from a fully certified aircraft in the air.
minable
At 2:10 "I didn't want to design something that had been done before"!!??? Are you kidding? This is almost a clone of the Icon A5 - even in the finest detail it resembles and at the very least is inspired by the A5. It sickens me the in GA designers copy and clone to such an extent and then call it original but what's even worse is that the market allows this. It is long past high time for another Rutan type designer to revolutionize the sector - I am so tired of copy after copy and rehashes of old designs and then having them marketed as "all original" or "revolutionary" - the industry needs to wake up!
ugly paint on this icon A5
Icon a5 ripoff
Joss_FPV ...Unless its better.
Joss_FPV ....Not a rip off. A competitor.
This airplane will suffer from the same problems that kill the ICON designer. The sponsons block flow to rudder and will likely make it nearly impossible to recover. The Cirrus also has this problem. You stall, you pull chute and the airplane is toast. Not good. That said, it looks better than an ICON. Both need 180 hp to make the 138 mph speed limit. The drag is around 8.1 square feet vs the ICON at 9.6, so, if their claims are correct, then it will be about 15% less drag...which could all be in the droop wing of the ICON...a bankaid to a the above problem. Look, this configuration is easily shown to not be valid. Just get off your lazy rear end, do a valid engineered scale model and weight it to scale and you will find it has bad stall nonsense....the cause of the ICON death. Same bat channel, just different clueless people trying to copy each other. Sorry, just tired of nonsense with seaplanes.
A twin rudder like the Seabear would cure that problem
seaplaneguy
....Yes you make some points. But you must admit. These planes are so cool. They would bring the masses to aviation. I tnink that would be a positive. At least if people take seriously what they are doing.
Yeah nothing ground breaking here, still nice aircraft if it indeed comes to fruition. Probably very expensive and those colors suck..