Canaero Toucan ultralight aircraft pictures, Canaero Toucan experimental aircraft images, Canaero Toucan lightsport aircraft photographs, Lightsport Aircraft Pilot newsmagazine aircraft directory.

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Canaero Toucan Index

Canaero Toucan Pictures

Canaero Toucan Video

Canaero Toucan pictures, images of the Canaero Toucan ultralight, experimental, lightsport aircraft.

The Toucan was the creation of our own Peter Corley, the very close friend of Dale Kramer that helped Dale design the Lazair (which was "inspired by" Klaus Hill's Super Floater ultralight sailplane). After a couple years there, Peter left Ultraflight to go work for bad boy Larry Newman, where he helped design the Falcon, especially the wings. If you have ever looked at the Falcon's wings, you'll see the Lazair's influence. Also, instead of the anti-drag box at the root like the Lazair, the Falcon has a long, tubular aluminum tube that extends from the root up through the wing to the front spar. That was "borrowed" from a Lazair wing redesign by Dale, and he was so unhappy about it, he decided not to use it because he thought people would think he copied it from Peter!

Peter left Larry and his bunch in California to return to Canada to finally design and produce his own design, the Toucan. I believe that was in late 1983, as I remember Peter still in California while I spent that summer working for Ultraflight. The Toucan was a tandem, two place inline twin utilizing Rotax 277 engines. The wingspan was 38 and a half feet, wing area 180 sq. ft. Empty weight was almost 400 lb. with a useful load of about 475 lb. With the inline thrust line, it was claimed that the Toucan could actually climb about 200 fpm on one engine at gross. Cruise speeds were only in the 55-60 mph range. Solo climb on both engines was very good, though, at over 1000 fpm! It was a high wing, twin boom, tricycle gear plane. The wings showed their Lazair/Falcon heritage. One cool thing was that the wings were covered on the top with TEDLAR, and on the bottom with Mylar! The early prototypes had an aluminum tube fuselage, but the later kits were to have welded
steel tubing.

Sadly, Peter was killed late the next year while doing some follow up testing when a fitting in a lift strut failed. Because he was not planning on doing any extreme maneuvers, just record some numbers, he left his chute in the trunk of his car. Stories had it he left a nut off of an attach bolt, while the official line was a fitting failed. I've always had a hard time believing Peter left the nut loose. Although Peter flew like a maniac, he was always a careful maniac. I, for one, was very saddened by the loss of Peter, who in the early days of Ultraflight helped make it a fun and exciting place. He was only in his late twenties when we lost him.

Peter's company was called Canaero Dynamics Aircraft, based in Ontario. Peter's brother ran the operation after his death. Kitplanes ran a story on the Toucan in it's November 1986 issue (which supplied the above specifications), so I guess they survived for several years. I have no idea how many aircraft and kits were produced, but the article mentions that the factory built 12 prototypes. Kit building times were claimed to be in the 200-400 hour range.
Chappy in Virginia Lazair #25

Canaero Toucan ultralight aircraft pictures, Canaero Toucan experimental aircraft images, Canaero Toucan lightsport aircraft photographs, Lightsport Aircraft Pilot newsmagazine aircraft directory.

Canaero Toucan pictures, images of the Canaero Toucan ultralight, experimental, lightsport aircraft - 1 Canaero Toucan pictures, images of the Canaero Toucan ultralight, experimental, lightsport aircraft - 2 Canaero Toucan pictures, images of the Canaero Toucan ultralight, experimental, lightsport aircraft - 3

To view the pictures, images of the  Canaero Toucan click on the smaller images and they will enlarge. To return to the index page for the Canaero Toucan click on  Canaero Toucan Index link, to view video of the Canaero Toucan click on the Video link, to return to the Main Index click on the Lightsport Aircraft Pilot link.

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Canaero Toucan Index

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