Following In The Tradition...

A new carbon-fiber aircraft, descended from a legendary record-setting airplane, will make its public debut during the Experimental Aircraft Association's 2004 AirVenture fly-in gathering. The 52nd annual EAA fly-in will be held July 27-August 2 at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh.

The Nemesis NXT will help the EAA "Launch the Second Century of Flight," in 2004 with an airplane that combines speed and technology in a whole new way.

The NXT, which stands for Neoteric eXperimental Technology, is a single-engine, two-place, retractable gear kit aircraft made of molded carbon fiber and powered by a turbocharged Lycoming 540 engine. The high-performance sport plane was modeled after the legendary Formula One air racing champion "Nemesis."

Team Nemesis earned 47 victories in 50 races, as well as 16 world speed records and numerous aviation awards between 1991 and 1999. Those honors included the prestigious International Bleriot Medal by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) for the 3-Kilometer speed record of 283.75 mph set at the 1996 EAA Oshkosh fly-in.

Nemesis was retired after flying its last flight at EAA AirVenture 2000. It was then on temporary display at the EAA AirVenture Museum before moving to its current location at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's new Udvar-Hazy Center in December 2003.

Soon after the retirement of the original Nemesis, its designer, builder, and pilot Jon Sharp headed a team to create a new, sleek, high performance kit sport plane. After four years of extensive wind tunnel testing, computer modeling and building on the success of the original aircraft, the Nemesis NXT is ready to debut at the largest annual aviation gathering in the world at Oshkosh.

"It's been an intense, busy four years," said Sharp, who after publicly unveiling the airplane at EAA AirVenture 2004 will race it for the first time in the Sport Class division at the Reno National Championship Air Races in September.

The airplane was first unveiled to 200 guests at an invitation-only event June 4 at Mojave Airport in California.

FMI: www.eaa.org