NetHeads, One more thing I'd like to add about the KR "design". Early in the building process, as I was watching and learning from Larry French's "Lionheart" design effort, I called Stu to get more info on the RAF48 airfoil's characteristics. He laughed and said "we never had that stuff". One of the early KRNewsletters alludes to this fact, as there was a request for the RAF48 data because "the factory can't find their copy". You simply can't design an airplane without knowing the airfoil lift and drag characteristics.
It turns out that the KR borrowed heavily from the Taylor Monoplane, as well as the Jeanie's Teenie and other planes for which they'd purchased plans. I'm not sure where the initial 5 degrees of wing incidence came from, but it was quickly discovered that it was too much, and it was lowered to 3.5 after the prototype flew. The truth of the matter is that these plans were not the result of a massive design effort, handed down on stone tablets from the mountaintop. They were quickly drawn up after their plane flew sucessfully, and a demand for plans arose. The big contribution that Ken made was his composite construction method, brought from the RC model world and applied to man-carrying aircraft, for which he won the "Best Aircraft Application of Materials" award at Oshkosh in 1972. Most of the other features for the KR came straight out of existing designs. There's more on this at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/khistory.html . I think Ken would have done a lot more with this plane if he'd lived longer, improving it much as we have done over the years. I think he would not only approve, but would have led the effort... Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL N56ML at hiwaay.net see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford
