Exclusive Interview
Aero-News recently spoke with Kevin Kimball of Jim Kimball
Enterprises, home to the kit version of the Pitts Model 12. If 360
Horsepower isn't enough for you, tune in to see what's
coming!
Aero-News: I guess it's a one-off project?
Kevin Kimball: At this point, it is. It's a
prototype, and it's based on the Model 12 airframe. We started out
with a set of wings we were building for a customer that were
modified. And he found himself in an unscheduled divorce...
Aero-News: So, you find yourself owning an
unplanned set of wings.
KK: Yeah, so we had that. And they're kind of a
hot-rod set of wings. And Dad [Jim Kimball] and I, for some time,
have wanted to see, just curious, "How light could you build one?"
So that was the idea. And we've gone ahead and gone that way, using
a carbon cowling instead of glass, titanium firewall, lightweight
landing gear, lightweight wheels, wheel pants, axles.
Single place, dedicated single place. Every system that doesn't
need to be on it will be deleted. It'll have a smaller fuel tank
capacity, so it's just a minimum on everything. It has a lot of
titanium, quite a bit of titanium hardware, all the larger
hardware. Lightweight everything.
It's got a titanium canopy frame, single-place bubble, that's
special, that we just did for it. We'll end up with it about 175
lb. lighter than the typical two-place.
It has adjustable pedals, 4130 steel on an aluminum tray with
delrin bushings. They weigh a couple of pounds more than the fixed
pedals, but less than a bunch of cushions to adapt to a shorter
pilot.
Aero-News: (laughing at the extreme attention
to detail)
KK (indignant): Oregon Aero cushions are quite
heavy! They add a lot of
weight!
Aero-News: You really considered the weight of
the cushions versus the
weight of the pedals?
KK: Oh, sure. There's eight pounds, ten pounds
of cushions in this airplane (indicating a Model 12). By the time
you get the nice Oregon Aero cushions and all that in there, in can
get kinda heavy. So the idea here is bring the pedals back, and
keep that person right back in the seat here.
Aero-News: And the seat's just a carbon bucket.
Bare minimum, light seat. Light weight. So that translates
into performance. For those people for whom the Pitts Model 12 is
an enervating, boring flying experience, this should reinvigorate
them...
KK (laughing): Right, right! What we're looking
to do is, with this particular version of the airplane, we'll have
the 400 horse version of the engine, and the 102 inch
propeller.
Aero-News: That's why you've got those loooong
landing gear legs.
KK: Yeah. And that will give us between 1750
and 1800 pounds of thrust -- and it will have about a 1725 takeoff
weight. The empty weight will be 1375. So by the time you put a
pilot, airshow fuel, and smoke oil in it, you're about 1725 with
1800 lbs of thrust.
Aero-News: Is that piece [gear legs] a
forging?
KK: No. they're cut from bar stock, and then
bent, and heat-treated. From a five by ten plate they can build
seven gear sets. They're done by Grove Aircraft, in California.
Aero-News: So this thing weighs 50 lbs more
than a Cessna 152...
KK (amused): I don't know what those weigh!
Aero-News: ... and has four hundred horsepower.
So it should be quite dramatic. It should be able to hang on that
prop pretty darn good.
KK: Right. Another comparison number, that I
have in my head, is, a Sukhoi 26, like Nikolai [Timofeev] flies --
this [Python] is almost 200 pounds lighter. And has the same
engine.
Aero-News: And at that elite level of
performance, the weight difference should definitely show up in
aircraft performance.
KK: Yeah. The biplane'll never really have the
roll rate of the monoplane. It's really tough on a biplane to get
all that stuff moving and spinning real quick, in roll. But we
should be more than 300 degrees a second. Maybe getting close to
360.
It's gonna have clipped wings, with big ailerons, so it'll roll
better than the standard 12, which is about 300 degrees.
Aero-News: Will you have spades on the
ailerons?
KK: Most likely. What we've found is that even
though we've had aileron systems on the 12, and Super Stinkers, and
other airplanes that Curtis has designed, that were intended to be
spadeless, the guys still want the spades to tune it for certain
things. It's less of a pressure issue, and more to get that exact
feel the way they like it. What we've done now, is we're just going
to plan on having spades on 'em anyway. And the guys can size the
spades, pitch the angles of the spades, whatever they want, to get
that feel the way they like to fly.
Aero-News: So you're hoping you might have some
interest in aircraft like this from the performers in the
industry?
KK: It's possible. I just think that the engine
and propeller combination is so tremendous. And it's a bargain
financially. It's such a powerhouse, that to really build an
all-out machine like this, it'd really be a lot of fun!
There may only be one. But it's gonna be fun!
Aero-News: Do you have somebody in mind to fly
it?
KK: We have several airshow friends that are
going to help us develop it, and dial it in, and get their input
into it, as we fly it. We'll do all the initial test flying and
everything. Who knows where the thing'll end up? But it should be
fun.
And Now For Something Completely Different...
KK: We also have another project that's coming
down the road, and we allude to it on our website, we have a little
information on it. And that's an airplane we call the Raptor.
Aero-News: The Raptor?
KK: A monoplane version of the 12. And what
this airplane [the Python] also does for us, is let us learn a few
things about the lighter gear, the single-place canopy, the
adjustable rudder pedal system that we've done. All these things
that we want to do in the monoplane that we can test out in a
biplane airframe, and not be completely new.
We're going to make it, but a little step at a time.
We're also in the Raptor, going to test the wing initially on a
Sukhoi, to get it dialed in, and then build the airframe. Now, this
right now, to me [indicating Python frame] -- me, I'm still a
biplane lover. This is what I'm looking for, is a hot rod.
Aero-News: This is the fittest of the species,
as it were.
KK: Yeah. It's kind of the ultimate. Now,
there's things this thing can't do that the 12 does -- and that's
take somebody with you, and travel, and have long range. But it's a
mission specific aircraft. The 12 is excellent in aerobatics,
excellent landing and takeoff. Great spin recovery, everything's
really good on it. And it's got long legs. It's got a 500-mile
range and 170-mile an hour cruise. And you have all that, so what
we're after here is something more mission specific, for the single
pilot mission.
Aero-News: I like it. I wanna see this thing
fly!
KK: End of this year, early next. Maybe we'll
be lucky and have somebody demoing it next year!
(Editors Note: Since the interview, JKE has have made progress
on the Python wings. "We have the lower wings ready for leading
edges and ailerons. The upper wing is nearly at that point now as
well. Aileron components are machined and we will soon build all 4
ailerons which are aluminum structure fabric covered. These are
nearly full span and have a new hinging system design as
compared to the standard model 12 kit wing.")
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.15.24)
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