I could look at a small pile of parts on a table, and blow air through a ventilation tube (nope! it was not blocked!) and that was it!

I KNEW what MUST lie right around the corner in the next room, though, so I was not at all crestfallen!

After taking a look at 'The Kit' in the photo above, we went over to Composite Assist, the company that would help me assemble the pieces. My work-schedule was shown below on a white-board. Close horizontal stabilizer? Close wing? make hydraulic lines? Now THIS was starting to look more encouraging!

MY AIRPLANE!!

Now THIS is a piece of the kit I can get more excited about! The Evolution weighs 4,300 pounds fully-loaded... but a few people just carried it right into the shop like a big suitcase! How did that happen? Here is the answer: The Evo is 100% made of carbon fiber. Every single bit. There is not one inch of airplane structure that is not carbon fiber. As a result, almost NONE of the weight of the airplane is the structure! Almost ALL the weight is the engine, fuel, passengers, suitcases, avionics, electrical systems and batteries, interior comforts, and pressurization and other systems! The airplane structure itself weighs next to NOTHING! A few people can easily carry a fuselage, and 2 people can easily carry a wing. A Lancair Evolution is like a manilla envelope full of metal weights: The envelope itself weighs nothing at all: All of the weight comes from what is INSIDE of it.

My fuselage locked down on the shop floor. Not a bad profile.

Climbing aboard for the first time:

Hmm.. it is a little slower than I thought, with a top speed of zero knots right now, but I see some good potential!

Note that the structure is pure carbon fiber. Here is how it is done: An outer layer of carbon fiber cloth is put down in a mold. Then, since of that, is 'core'. This is a super-light honeycomb, about 3/8" in thick. More layers of carbon fiber then sit on top of the core. Carbon fiber is incredibly strong in tension, but useless in bending. So, how do you make a strong shell out of it? Simple! Make your thingy out of 2 layers of carbon fiber with the core in the middle. Now, if you try to BEND that core, it will be impossible to bend. Why? Becaue you CANNOT BEND THE CORE WITHOUT STRETCHING THE CARBON FIBER ON THE TOP OR BOTTOM... and carbon fiber is so string in tension that you simply cannot stretch it. Thus, the core cannot be bent. By building all the structures from a light-weight honey-comb core with a layer of carbon fiber above and below it, the whole plane has an incredible stiffness and strength, while still having almost no weight. If you look carefully at the photo below, you will see that lots of secions of the cabin seem to be THICKER than th areas around them. Why? That is where the CORE is! But, we ALWAYS taper the core out to zero near the edges and bring the carbon fiber layers together to 'close out' the structure and protect the core and lock down both layers of carbon fiber so that they cannot be pulled from their current position.

Here is a diagram showing what I mean. If you realize that it is near-impossible to stretch the thin layers of carbon-fiber, then you will see that it is nearly impossible to bend the structure below... and the whole plane is made of this type of structure.

OK here we are inside the fuselage. Note that it is pure carbon fiber, and note that some layers are thicker, tapering smoothly down to the thinner parts... that is clearly where the core is! Cool!

Another shot of the inside of the body with less coloration from the camera. Note the tunnels for the spars.

Note that the walls are about 3/8" thick, and taper down around the window and baggage doors... now your clearly know why! You are seeing the diagram above, where the carbon fiber surrounds a core, and then tapers down ands bonds at the edges to prevent any sliding around of the carbon fiber! This also makes a perfect place to install windows, door-seems, etc.