If it has any hopes of being a suitable replacement for the mighty 170 they had better work up a "round tail" option ASAP

A super 170 is a good way to describe it from what I've seen. Being a sxs the useful load should be, shall we say, useful? I imagine they'll be selling like hotcakes, and in 5 to 7 years, once they figure out they need a LE cuff and VGs, they'll be landing in the wheel tracks a factory 170b made 60 years ago.

Halestorm wrote:RV-15 is a 2 seater, it isn’t really direct competition for any of those planes, especially that vaporware machine the bushliner. It most closely competes with the Rans S-21 and the Sling highwing.

It’s going to make a great floatplane someday methinks, that’s what I’m most excited about.

Ah - my mistake. I forgot that relevant detail, well corrected.

I guess I am thinking about planes which (for backcountry ops) effectively have two seats useful and the rest for gear, even through they are technically 4-seaters. I guess that's where the RV-15 will compete and fits into the market?

With a "target" useful load of 900lbs, it's well and truly beyond direct competition with microlights. But I think it will get their customers. There will be some microlight pilots who want more payload and room and might upgrade to an RV-15, if their licence allows.

The 15 is pretty attractive on alot of fronts. It’s absolutely doesn’t replace my 185, but would it do most of what I do with it? Ya, it would.

I’m cautiously optimistic that Deltahawk turns the aviation corner and their product becomes a standard, the 15 would be a perfect airframe for it.

There is absolutely a market for the 15, it doesn’t matter if they were first to the table or not, Vans has incorporated some revolutionary design ideas with the 15. And the 15 is its own animal, very unique in many aspects. It’s gonna sell. Even I am considering building one…………

But that RV 16 is going to lift off from UAO one day, and I have high hopes that it does more than my Wagon does and something that my Wagon will never do, fly like a Vans. I love my 185, it’s a bad ass plane, and love flying it. I hear and read all the time how the early Skywagons are so light and nimble on the controls compared to a heavier 185 blah blah blah. It’s like comparing driving a loaded dump truck to a half loaded dump truck after you’ve flown an RV, cause there is absolutely no comparison.