Quickie Aircraft
| Industry | Homebuilt Aircraft |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1978 in Mojave, California, United States |
| Founder |
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| Defunct | 1986 |
| Fate | Bankrupt due to lawsuit |
Key people |
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| Products |
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The Quickie Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1978 in Mojave, California, with the purpose of producing and selling the Quickie series of homebuilt airplanes, including the Quickie, Quickie Q2, and Quickie Q200. The initial single-seat Quickie was a collaborative design effort between Burt Rutan and the company's founders Gene Sheehan and Tom Jewett. The subsequent two-seat variants, the Q2 and Q200, were created through the combined work of Canadian designer Garry LeGare, along with Jewett and Sheehan. While these models were inspired by the original Quickie, their designs diverged considerably. Throughout its existence, the corporation distributed over 2,000 aircraft kits.
A notable feature of the Quickie was its canard wing employing a GU25-5(11)8 airfoil, originally developed by Terence Nonweiler. This airfoil, however, presented challenges in performance when operating at low Reynolds numbers or under wet environmental conditions.
The company ultimately declared bankruptcy in 1986 after enduring significant financial difficulties and leadership disruptions caused by an expensive legal case stemming from a crash involving one of its homebuilt aircraft.