Sports 1.5:1 Thrust Ratio... Ooo-rah!

The Toucan has wings! Infinity Entertainment tipped Aero-News early Wednesday that its Turbine Toucan, piloted by noted test pilot Dave Morss, successfully completed its first flight Wednesday morning. Beating all expectations, the plane performed flawlessly.

Infinity CEO David Kervinen tells ANN the path to the Toucan's first flight wasn't without its difficulties. It took 14 months, 5,200 man hours and overcoming various technical complexities to reach flight status. Over the course of the past 30 days, the Turbine Toucan underwent  exhaustive testing to prepare for its flight, which took place just after 9:00 am PDT Wednesday.

Weighing in at just over 1,650 pounds -- and powered by a 750-horsepower turboprop, delivering almost 3,000 lbs of thrust -- the Turbine Toucan is the highest performance biplane ever built. The Turbine Toucan will make four world record attempts in 2007, two of which will be made this summer. Records include time-to-climb, world's fastest biplane and world's only hovering biplane.

The Toucan brings impressive punch to those attempts. As Aero-News reported last month, Infinity states the Turbine Toucan is the only civilian aircraft with a positive thrust-to-weight ratio. To put this in perspective, the F/A-18 Hornet (at fighter mission weight) weights 36,700 lbs... and has 32,000 lbs of thrust. This works out to a .87:1 thrust-to-weight ratio. In comparison, the Turbine Toucan's performance is better than 1.5:1 with pilot and fuel.

More people have walked on the moon than have experience with an aerobatic aircraft with a 1.5:1 thrust to weight ratio, Kervinen notes.

Morss will conduct preliminary testing of the Toucan, before turning the controls over to Infinity Entertainment's airshow team. Taking on the challenge of exploring the 3-D aerobatic potential of the Turbine Toucan is Ken Erickson, who has over 10,000 flight hours and 27 years of experience as an aerobatic pilot and instructor. It will be up to Erickson to develop an airshow program featuring the Turbine Toucan for the 2008 airshow season.

FMI: www.turbinetoucan.com