LOET KUIPERS COLLECTION
No. 9918. Glasair GS-2 Sportsman 2+2 (PH-JAJ c/n 7294)
Photographed at Texel, Netherlands, September 12, 2009, by Loet Kuipers

Glasair GS-2 Sportsman 2+2

06/30/2010. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "The GlaStar kitplane was announced by Stoddard-Hamilton at the Sun 'n Fun Fly-in at Lakeland, Florida, 1994 and was designed for completion by an experienced homebuilder in about 500 hours. Before its first flight at Arlington, Washington, USA, in November 1994, 100 had been ordered.

Stoddard-Hamilton filed for bankruptcy in 2000, and after a period of attempted takeovers and lawsuits, the assets of Stoddard-Hamilton and Arlington Aircraft Development (design rights holder of the Glasair low-wing and GlaStar high-wing monoplanes) were taken over in 2001, by Glasair Aviation, a new company formed by Thomas W. Wathen.

The Sportsman 2+2, the slightly larger four-seat version of the two-seat GlaStar, was introduced in 2005. Both types have foldable wings, can be fitted with either a nose or tail wheel landing gear, or floats, and can be trailed behind a car. The Sportsman is powered by a 210 hp Lycoming O-360 four-cylinder horizontally-opposed engine.

The pictured aircraft was completed in a program called "Two Weeks to Taxi", wherein the buyers, Koos de Korte and Nico Nanninga of the Netherlands, assembled the aircraft at the Glasair plant at Arlington, assisted by Glasair personnel. Assembled during February 2009 the aircraft was dismantled and crated, arriving in the Netherlands in April, whereafter (still dismantled) it received its present color scheme. Reassembled at Drachten in July 2009, it made its maiden flight and received its CofA."


Created June 30, 2010