11/30/2010. Remarks by Walter van Tilborg: "In 1983 Gianni Zuliani completed and flew his tandem two-seat Rutan Long-EZ which was powered by an 115 hp Lycoming O-235 engine. A couple of years later Zuliani decided to modify the Long-EZ into the Stag-Ez with a so called staggered seating for pilot and passenger. It retained the Lycoming O-235 engine and wings, and the standard landing gear, with fixed main landing gear units and a retractable nose wheel.

Zuliani constructed a new fuselage with the new seating, additional baggage space and a new cowling and the Stag-Ez was dimensionally very similar to the standard Long-EZ. The aircraft first flew in June 1987, but it was damaged in an accident in 1999. The wings were then again used for a further improved model which became the Stag-EzR.

Work on the much improved Stag-EzR started in 1999, and the aircraft received an entirely new wider and longer fuselage allowing up to three persons, in staggered seating, an 150 hp Lycoming O-320-E2D engine, new canopy and rear windows, new design canard wings. It furthermore received a new and fully retractable landing gear, additional fuel tanks and numerous equipment and systems improvements. The one-of-a-kind Stag-EzR made its first flight in May 2004."