Fast, High-End Composite Kit Business On Market
Over the past couple of
months we've talked to Jim Barr several times as he's hashed out
what to do with this project, and Jim informs us that he's retiring
from the kit business to return to retirement, and perhaps a little
bit of his first love -- buying and selling fine machinery, perhaps
Beechcraft Barons.
If you've ever wanted to get into the kit business, this is an
interesting opportunity. Jim is looking to sell the entire project,
data, rights, and hardware, complete composite-curing heat and
vacuum room -- at least five trailers of stuff. Including the
trailers!
The Barr 6 is a high-performance composite kit airplane designed
to be easy to fly but capable of prodigious load-carrying feats and
excellent speeds. It does this through the old-fashioned guarantor
of power, cubic inches (the prototype was IO-720 powered).
Despite the thirst of the IO-720 at full power, throttled back
to 75% power -- 300 HP -- it burns less fuel than most 300 HP
engines do while making rated power. The aircraft is designed to
take 400 to 500 HP, and some studies (but nothing firm or final)
have been done towards turbine power and pressurization.
While the airplane resembles a Cessna 206 or 207 at a glance, it
has a most un-206-like speed. 75% cruise was 206 mph; Vne, 248, and
Va, 171. Yet the plane comes over the fence at 70 and touches down
at 45.
These numbers were developed by engineers, but most of them were
attained during the 210 hours of flight of the prototype, N83W,
which was subsequently destroyed in a ground fire. (The cruise at
gross weight had only been documented to 190 mph, but Barr believes
that there are some aerodynamic improvements possible, for example
with the wheel fairings, as all the other engineering specs were
proven in flight testing).
The Barr 6 has a roomy, walk-around cabin with a prodigious
2303-lb useful load. It's the light weight of the composite
structure that makes it possible, and the composites are made so
lightweight, but strong, by internal reinforcements made of bundles
of carbon rods -- an innovation designed into the Barr 6 by Charley
Rodgers, a former Bell composites engineer.
"Since 1989 I have worked towards developing and marketing the
Barr 6," Jim said in a statement. "I will be 62 in June, 2996 and
do not have the energy... to set up manufacturing of kits for
customers. It is time for new people to take the proven Barr 6 into
manufacturing and delivery of kits to waiting customers."
The Barr 6 was covered previously in
Aero-News. It has some interesting detail design
features, some lifted from Cessna aircraft, some from the Bonanza,
and some entirely novel.
Barr (above) has put fifteen years of his life and two million
dollars of his own money in this project. He's now looking for a
good home for it --looking for someone that can take a good utility
plane with a remarkable load-bearing capacity, and manufacture and
market it successfully.
This might be a good project for a completion shop looking to
move up to be a full service kit vendor, or a composite ace with a
little access to capital, looking to set up his own shop and strike
out on his own.
The project includes all the rights and technical data, all the
molds and plugs, and advice and consulting support as needed from
Jim Barr. He's also making his expert engineer, Charley Rodgers,
available to do FEA (Finite Element Analysis) work for the new
buyer, should such work be required (of course, Rodgers's fees are
not included in the purchase).
A massive quantity of development documentation, including over
forty red binders (below), and engineering documentation, from
Martin Hollmann, Charley Rodgers and other professional engineers,
is also part of the sale. So are plans sets for several other
homebuilt aircraft, a partial Cessna 206, and such necessities as
the Autocad license for reading and revising the Barr 6 drawings.
Finally, a complete technical library and a comprehensive set of
magazines -- so it's also a rare chance to complete your US Aviator
collection!
For complete information about the sale and the
company, click on the link below.