Here are a couple of interesting all metal 4 place Cessna 172 look alikes which are scheduled to be available soon. One is a USA-made EAB kit, and the other an Italian certified plane complete with Lyco IO-360 and CS prop.

The Skydesigns Sky-4 Cloud Trekker is a four place all metal kit being developed by ex- Vans employee Ken Kruger. It looks like a blend of a 172 Skyhawk and a Cessna 177 Cardinal. It will be offered in kit form and no exact deliver dates have yet been announced.





Link: https://www.skydesigns.aero/

The second Italian offering is the Vulcanaire. $ 259,000 buys you a brand new Lyco IO-180, 4 place, Constant Speed prop, IFR equipped FAA Certified plane with three doors. What I found interesting in the video is the claim that the IO fuel injected engine is okay with mogas. I vaguely recall maybe just a few FAA certified fuel injected planes ( Debonaire?? ) being okayed for Mogas. I know there have been endless discussions on whether that’s kosher or not. The plane is undergoing final FAA approval, and projected availability is end of 2017.




Link: http://vulcanair.com/vulcanair-v1-0

Nice to see some models like this for fans of the venerable Cessna 172. The two look remarkably similar . Good luck to both manufacturers. Images courtesy of AVWEB and Skydesigns.

Denali wrote:
The Skydesigns Sky-4 Cloud Trekker is a four place all metal kit being developed by ex- Vans employee Ken Kruger.

Van really needs to develop an RV back country high wing airplane kit. With today's resurgence of interest in STOL aircraft and Van's reputation for quality and happy customers, it would be as close to a guaranteed success as one could imagine.

Do any of the people on this forum know whether there Is some reason that he has not done this? The idea must have occurred to him.

EZFlap wrote:

Denali wrote:
The Skydesigns Sky-4 Cloud Trekker is a four place all metal kit being developed by ex- Vans employee Ken Kruger.

Van really needs to develop an RV back country high wing airplane kit. With today's resurgence of interest in STOL aircraft and Van's reputation for quality and happy customers, it would be as close to a guaranteed success as one could imagine.

Do any of the people on this forum know whether there Is some reason that he has not done this? The idea must have occurred to him.

My hangar mate is VP of engineering at Vans. I'll ask him.

Cheers...Rob

Vulcanair uses our gascolator as OEM on their piston aircraft... So, I have known about the 1.0 for quite sometime now... They are the only company that I make a one off version gascoator for as they use MS straight thread inlet and outlet ports with O-ring seals instead of NPT ports.

What surprises me a bit on the video is that the rep stated that the aircraft weighed just over 1000 pounds... The drawing and spec sheet they sent me had an empty weight of almost 1300, so they must have cut a bunch of weight out... Of course the stuff I saw was before they even had a prototype built so lots of changes has been made since then...

They are a good company with lots of overseas sales for their light twins, I hope for the best for them.

Brian.

I think he said in the video that empty weight was 1600 lbs.