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"TURBO TRAVELLER"

Imagine: you buy a Bonanza or a Mooney, or one of the bigger Cessna's. You go out flying with some friends, and all of a sudden a large, slender airplane passes you by. Two guys in the front seats, four pretty girls in the back, waving at you. "A Comp Air 8," says one of your friends. "Two hundred and fifty knots, seats up to eight persons, and less than 300.000 guilders". Hmm. A shadow on your trip.

Nice story, but we have to add something: you have to build that Comp Air yourself. That doesn't take too long though. "Most of our clients need about a year, but four months of working every night and every weekend is also an option", says general manager of Aerocomp Stephen Young. "With a small team we once put one together in four weeks, for a show".

Aerocomp initially wanted to take the position of not-so-very fast but spacious and practical homebuilt. This explains the unusual box-like features, the large doors and the easy entrance. But then the turbine appeared. The Walter 601 'reconditioned' turbine. 700 hp it delivers. No reciprocal engine gets close. But who in heaven’s name gets the idea of putting such a monster in front of a good-natured homebuilt?

Supplier close by.

Another advantage: a company in Deland, hardly a hundred miles away turned out to deliver the Walter turbines. This Warsaw Pact workhorse, designed for use in the barren Russian tundra, and coming from the LET 410, are being worked on thoroughly, to make them fit for years of intensive use. The relations with the supplier in Deland are very good; those with the Walter people a little cooler. "The manufacturer builds extremely good and dependable engines, but wants us to buy factory overhauled engines exclusively, and for an unrealistic price - while we know that our supplier in Deland has an enormous experience in this field, works very carefully and has advanced testing equipment the factory doesn't even have."

"View the engine as a twin, in fuel consumption and output. Although a turbine is more dependable. Statistically a twin is not really safer. It’s only the idea. We give our customers a broad choice in engines though, from 260 to 300 hp Lycomings, 230hp Continentals and even a PT-6, although there is a totally different price tag on that, of course."

Who will build such a plane?

"It's hard to categorize these planes", says Stephen. "Performance AND utility we always say here. Many people choose a Comp Air because they want something out of the ordinary. Because they want performance and daily ease of use. Ex-military pilots, airline pilots, or people who already have owned high performance planes and are fed up with sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a small fuselage. I just give a long shot: people who would like to own a PC12 but are currently flying a Lancair IV-P."

The choice is rather broad, doesn't that give a lot of confusion? "On the contrary, we've got our experimental status and we've got the turbine, with more than enough power. That gives us the possibility to modify freely. All our planes are designed with the client's wishlist in mind. How many people do you want to take? How fast do you want to go? Do you use mainly use concrete or grass strips? Thus you get rather different planes. "Builders who find our 7 too small and our 10 too slow. So the 8 was developed. Later a builder wanted more headroom in the back, so we made the 7SL. In fact, the Comp Air is a modular design that can easily be adapted to a variety of clients' wishes."

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