Melmoth 2: A Personal Airplane

FLYING Staff

Friday, August 01, 2003 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The article details the first flights of Melmoth 2, the culmination of a challenging 21-year building process that began after Melmoth 1 was wrecked and driven by a desire to experiment with composite construction.
Melmoth 2 is an evolutionary design, incorporating a new composite airframe, a high-aspect-ratio wing, and other modifications that resulted in improved climb performance and similar cruising speeds compared to its predecessor.
The project underscored the unexpected complexities of building a sophisticated aircraft with composites, requiring continuous refinements and still necessitating significant ongoing work on various systems even after its initial flights.

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In February’s Flying I described the first flight of Melmoth 2 on November 1, 2002. To tell the truth, however, that wasn’t really the first flight. It was the first up-and-away flight. The airplane had actually lifted off the ground for the first time the day before.

Blustery winds blew through Mojave for three days after the FAA signed off my certificate of airworthiness, but it was quiet on Halloween morning. I taxied out to Runway 30, where I had done many fast taxi runs before.