Some Survive, Some Die. What Will Become Of The Algie 1?

By Tom Woodward

Many of us trek to Oshkosh each year to investigate what new products and equipment we can throw endless amounts of money at to incorporate into our newest project. Some of us go for the friendship, air shows, camping and a plethora of other reasons often difficult to explain to non-aviators. But a select few come North to show their new product or even more rare, the airplane of their own design, of which they hope to produce for the market with the highly unlikely chance of, if not only recouping their investment but, striking it rich.

Several years ago I happened to walk into a booth, mainly because the banner flying outside had WOODWARD AEROSPACE on it, which was my namesake, but no relation. What I saw was a high performance, pressurized, retractable, carbon fiber airplane like a few others I have noticed over the 30 plus years that I have been attending Oshkosh, with the exception of the power plant, which in this case was a Corvette LS1/1/7 lineage.

The fit and finish of this airplane was only surpassed by the anticipate performance numbers. I found out this was the Algie LP-1 (standing for Light Plane 1) and it was being marketed by Woodward Aerospace and being built and designed by David Algie a former 23 year Indy Car fabrication and design veteran. Two years later and still no airplane but the reason why may not be the normal lack of funding that we often see (OK funding probably does play a part in it). The Woodward Aerospace web page claims an empty weight of 1080 lbs with a useful load of 822 lbs. and a max speed of 385 Mph on 14.5 gallons per hour while maintaining sea level pressure at FL290! These are truly lofty goals, but have we not learned anything from Bede about such claims?

Well, we may never find out, because at this time Woodward Aerospace and David Algie, like many designer/marketeers have parted ways, mainly because of the lawsuit Woodward has filed to recoup what he claims is money owed to him. Not all agree that what Woodward wants is money, but rather to take over the project as it nears its first flight. Backer and Yahoo! group members are coming to David's defense with hopes that the legal system and the associated cost won’t sink him before he completes his project and makes the first flight. Standby for further updates.

FMI: http://members.iquest.net/~aca/index.htm