Low Wing, Aluminum, LSA-Targeted Sport Plane

It's just like every other RANS product, except the S-19 is also completely different. While it is a two-seat sport airplane powered by a Rotax engine, it's a major departure for RANS in that it is an all-metal airframe.

RANS has typically offered aluminum-tube-and sail or steel-tube-and-fabric aircraft. Most of the RANS line have been high-wing, too; the S-19 is a low-wing plane that manages to resemble, slightly, Piper Cherokees, Van's RVs, and the Thorp T-211, to name a few.

It has a look of its own, too. There's nothing radical about the S-19 but it sure is pretty, in our subjective opinion.

As covered separately here, RANS of Hays, KS has streamlined its product line to four models, including the new S-19. 

The S-19 has two seats side-by-side in a 43.5 inch cockpit under a sliding canopy -- and a solid steel roll bar, one of many safety features quietly engineered into the ship. It is powered by a Rotax 912S 4-cycle engine of 100 hp. The cockpit is designed to accommodate pilots and pax of up to 6'4", and can accommodate even larger folks with modifications. It has tricycle landing gear, a straight "Hershey Bar" wing and an all-flying horizontal stabilator.

Flight characteristics are aimed primarily at safety -- with the specifications targeted right at the Light Sport Aircraft sweet spot. (While RANS makes no announcement at this time, since they produce their other aircraft as ready-to-fly SLSAs, we consider an SLSA version of the S-19 an inevitability). With the kit, the interesting thing is the possibility of getting an aircraft that can perform with the top European-designed SLSAs like the Sting Sport or SportStar, for much less money, by putting in your own time and sweat equity.

According to RANS, the aircraft cruises at 128 mph, takes off or lands in a ground roll of 325 feet, and stalls at only 45 mph with its (manual) flaps extended.

While few RANS aircraft have been designed with low wings -- notably the fast-flying, slow-selling S-16 Shekari -- the S-19 is a whole new ball game for the company. In a first for RANS, it's conventional aluminum semi-monocoque (stressed skin with supporting structure) structure, with the whole thing being assembled using pulled rivets, as pioneered by Chris Heintz's Zenith designs.

While the S-19 is new to the public, its design has been underway for quite some time, as the structural testing image below shows. The picture, which shows a wiffle tree being used to apply loads to an S-19 wing structure, is dated October 7, 2004. That illustration also shows the extent to which RANS is testing and developing this aircraft. The aircraft is designed to a limit load factor of a utility-ish +4.4, -2.0.

The aircraft is designed, they say, for durability. "The airplane is built very sturdy and should provide 'life time' service if it receives the required maintenance and adequate storage," the website says. "Since the rivets are so easy and quick to install we use a few more than needed to carry the loads, increasing durability of the airframe."

It's also designed for ease of assembly. The wing spars are factory assembled; there's no welding, bucked riveting or heavy fabrication. Control cables are prefabricated -- the builder must only install them. The high precision of the predrilled parts reduces, really eliminates, the requirement for jigs or fixtures -- the aircraft is essentially self-aligning.

The kit is sold in modules: Empennage, Wing, Fuselage, Finishing, Engine Install, and Engine. The Empennage Kit is $1,900 and the most expensive component in the current price list is the engine, at $13,900. If you buy all the parts at the current price, it'd be $37,800. (If you're ready to put cash on the barrelhead, call Randy or Paula at 785-625-6346).

RANS wraps up their sales pitch like this: "We hope you will enjoy building it as much as we do." the web site (see the FMI link) has a lot more information about this promising sport plane. 

FMI: www.rans.com/S-19.htm