Experimental Aircraft Expected to Stretch the Limits of Aviation

You could say they got a little bit too wound up in their work.

It was only the second taxiing test of the Rubber Bandit, the world’s biggest airplane powered by rubber bands. The Bandit’s crew meticulously prepared the craft--still without wings--for the test at Van Nuys Airport last weekend.

The ground test was part of the ongoing preparations for the maiden flight of the Rubber Bandit, a labor of love by a volunteer crew that hopes to reach an eccentric aviation milestone: building the first plane powered by rubber bands to carry a human aloft.

The ultimate question facing the group is whether 90 pounds of coiled rubber can spin a two-story-tall propeller fast enough to lift the plane and pilot.

Aeronautical engineer George Heaven, who designed the craft, estimates liftoff speed at 19 mph, which was the target speed for the test.

The first taxi test in March was purposely conservative, using only 80 pounds of coiled rubber. With two flat tires to slow the craft and carrying two pilots, the plane reached only 13 mph and traveled 800 feet before crew members brought it to a halt.

Heaven used the test to recalculate his estimates. He shortened the rubber band and increased the number of strands so they would unwind more smoothly inside the plane’s 33-foot-long fuselage. With a wound-up engine and new tires, the builders prepared for the first real test May 3.

Heaven buckled test pilot Jennifer LaFayette--along with Lucky, her stuffed cocker spaniel mascot--onto a bicycle seat suspended below the fuselage.

Crew members positioned themselves at the end of a half-mile-long ramp to catch the plane, which, to save weight, has no brakes.

Rubber bands uncoiling as planned, the prop spun and the plane shot forward. Faster and faster it went. Heaven, riding in a convertible pace car, clocked it at 27 mph, half again faster than the expected speed.

It shot past the catch crew, too fast for them to snag.

LaFayette, with no brakes and no ramp left, swerved to avoid hitting a parked helicopter, then veered again in a giant U-turn around parked trailers, following orders radioed to her by a frantic Heaven. The stress of the turns disintegrated a wheel, causing the axle to drop and the tips of the propeller to be nicked as the craft scraped to a halt.

“It was Mr. Toad’s wild ride for sure,” said LaFayette, 26, a self-proclaimed thrill junkie who also hang glides and skydives. “It was fabulous.”

Heaven admits the performance was a cliffhanger. They had planned to use a runway, but air traffic controllers at the busy airport denied them permission. And once the rubber bands are wound, about the only way to uncoil them is to, well, let her rip.

“It was a little bit of a shock, but it was incredible,” Heaven said. “Jennifer did an excellent job.”

The eventual maiden flight is expected to draw thousands of spectators from around the world. But first, the builders need to find a test site.

The Federal Aviation Administration has ruled that they cannot test an experimental aircraft at Van Nuys Airport, the busiest general aviation field in the world. “They cannot do it at this airport because of the air-traffic congestion and population surrounding the airport,” said Karla Towe, aviation safety inspector at the Van Nuys Flight Standards District Office.

She suggested the maiden flight be conducted in the Mojave Desert or other remote location. “We are always concerned about the safety of other airplanes and the people surrounding the airport. We don’t know what would happen--it’s never been flown with a person before,” Towe said. “There are too many variables.”

The ruling disappointed the Bandit crew, which expects to complete the plane this month by installing its wings, with a 71-foot span.

Heaven said they are now seeking another airport at which to stage the flight, which he expects to draw at least 50,000 spectators. An ad appearing in the current issue of Pacific Flyer, a popular trade publication, announces, “The Rubber Bandit Is Searching for the Perfect Airport to Host Its Maiden Flight.”

Specifications listed include a runway at least 5,000 feet long, space and controls to handle large crowds, ample parking and a “highly motivated staff.”

LaFayette said the logistics of planning the maiden flight are vast. Volunteers need to arrange for services from renting portable toilets to arranging security and parking control, publicity and promotion.

“We’ve been working on this for four years,” LaFayette said. “We can’t just do the first flight and not invite people.”

The crew also is struggling to find a corporate sponsor. About $200,000 has been spent on the plane, much of it raised by donations and the sale of promotional T-shirts and other items. Another $100,000 may be needed.

News of the rubber-band project has circled the globe via television and newspaper stories. An Internet Web site launched last fall already has drawn more than 30,000 hits, with the Web address passed along by word of mouth, LaFayette said. Fans from around the world have visited the site, at www.rubberbandit.com.

The builders expect the flight to set several world records. Not only has no plane powered by a rubber band ever carried a human aloft, but the Rubber Bandit has a unique control system, never tested in flight.

It does not have the mechanical cables of airplanes of the past nor the electronic signal-carrying cables of modern fly-by-wire aircraft. Instead, an on-board panel will be used to send radio signals to the plane’s controls, much as hobbyists fly model airplanes by remote radio signal.

The motor consists of 1,200 strands of rubber 20 feet long. The rubber is stretched to three times its length at rest, then wound 800 times by a winch on a tractor as it is slowly fed into the fuselage.

It’s basically the world’s largest model airplane, crafted out of space-age, ultralight, ultra-strong materials, like those used in bulletproof vests. Without the rubber-band motor and pilot, the plane weighs only 200 pounds.

Heaven, 46, expects to be the first to fly it, followed by LaFayette. Once successful, they plan to take the plane on a world tour and eventually land a place for it in a museum.

“You have to do something this crazy for it to be a first,” LaFayette said.