Melmoth 2: A Personal Airplane

FLYING Staff

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

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The article recounts the prolonged 21-year construction and initial flights of Melmoth 2, a homebuilt composite aircraft, culminating in its "up-and-away" flight in November 2002 after preliminary "runway hops."
Melmoth 2 is a completely new, more complex composite design compared to its metal predecessor, Melmoth 1, featuring a high-aspect-ratio wing, fixed T-tail, and other evolutionary changes.
The building process was unexpectedly complex and time-consuming, involving design challenges like a troublesome landing gear retraction system, with significant help from test pilot Mike Melvill.
Despite being a work in progress with many systems still to be completed, Melmoth 2 exhibits impressive performance, including an excellent climb rate and speed, meeting its design targets.

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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.