233 Kts, FL230, 26 Minutes From Brake Release... Wow!

The general aviation industry, for the last few years, has been nothing if not innovative. The extraordinary progress we’ve seen in an industry that has heretofore been populated by derivations of older, staid designs marks an amazing change in pace and direction for our industry. Pilots all over the world are just beginning to appreciate how significant this revolution has become. And… you ain’t seen nothing yet.

While Cirrus and Diamond have been out there for a number of years pumping hundreds of high-quality, high-performance, next-generation airframes into the GA Pipeline, the folks at Lancair have been promising to take over the top of the aero-food-chain in terms of speed and capability… and it was ANN’s time to see if the hype was up to the reality. ANN was the first publication to get a hold of a certified Lancair Columbia 400 and make it breathe heavy to see if the bird could deliver on a pretty-arrogant 235 knot promise. Here are our impressions of the Columbia 400... from the lofty heights of FL 230.

The Lancair Columbia is the third production bird developed from Lance Neibauer’s highly regarded Lancair ES series of SportPlanes. A composite single-engine, fixed tricycle gear, low winger; the high-performance Columbia 400 is currently billed as one of the world’s fastest production S/E birds (if not THE fastest). It carries up to four people at speeds of up to 235 kts at altitudes up to 25,000 ft. The C400 is an all-electric bird, with two distinct electrical busses and no vacuum system. That’s right -- NO vacuum system -- even the backup AI is an electrically driven gauge. The Columbia 400’s two independent electrical systems sport a “cross-tie” capability. During a failure of either alternator, with dual batteries, dual Alternators and Regulators, this pumps up the ability to start the engine from either battery (or both, during cold weather). The essential bus is automatically fed from either system, as is the avionics bus. A dual pointer ammeter displays either battery or alternator.

The 3600-pound C400 has an average empty weight of 2600 pounds, and stands 9 feet tall. It has a 36 foot wingspan (from nav light to nav light), a wing area of 141.2 square feet, an aspect ratio of 9.2, and a length of 25.2 feet. A useful load of 1000 pounds and a fuel capacity of 106 gallons (of which 98 are usable) means that if you tank this baby up that you’re going to be hard-pressed to carry more than two people unless they’re official greeters for Munchkinland. The Columbia 400 totes a wing loading of 24 lbs. per sq. ft. and a power loading of 10.97 lbs. per hp.

The motive force that leads the C400 to such lofty speeds and heights is a single Teledyne-Continental TSIO-550-C, boasting 310 HP, driving a three-blade 78” Hartzell prop (that seems very well suited to this aircraft). Teledyne-Continental’s lovely six-banger is a twin-turbocharged, direct drive, air-cooled, horizontally opposed, fuel-injected, six-cylinder powerplant with over 550 cubic inches displacement. The mill is rated at 310 HP for take-off (2600 RPM, 35.5 in) and max continuous power (at 2600 revs), and some 262 HP for max climb (2600 RPM) and cruise 2500 RPM).

She’s a beautifully powerful beast to lay eyes on -- she exudes speed and “attitude,” ample proof of Neibauer’s beginnings as a graphic arts wiz before the airplane bug bit him (hard). I’m looking forward to seeing more of these things in the air, as they provide a fluid contrast to the boxier designs that proliferate our airspace. Sleek lines also belie a stocky aspect that promises that this is a bird that can handle the rigors of heavy-duty use. One thing I get a kick out of, with the current generation of composite birds is the solid “thunk” they make when poked, banged, and prodded versus -- the hollow ‘tin-can” sound many metal birds make. While hardly a true measure of their structural integrity, that aura of solidity is just the thing that will make an aviation novice feel a little more comfy as you head aloft.

Outwardly, there are few things that distinguish a C400 from its normally aspirated brethren… the few tell-tales show in the enlarged cooling inlets in the rakish cowling and a subtly enlarged set of tail-feathers (as well as a ventral fin) necessary to deal with the vagaries of high-altitude ops.

Overall; the first certified Lancair Columbia 400 looks a lot better than the first-off version of most birds has a right to look. A few years of manufacturing Lancair Columbia 300s and 350s is obviously teaching these folks well. The “blemish factor” was surprisingly low on our test-bird, N48PD.

To Be Continued...

FMI: www.lancair.com/certified