Wier RDW-2 Draggin' Fly
# Wier RDW-2 Draggin' Fly

The Wier RDW-2 Draggin' Fly was a homebuilt light aircraft, designed in the United States in the 1970s, aimed at fairly inexperienced builders and flyers. Plans were available but only one was built.

## Design and development

The Draggin' Fly was designed to be easy to build, to have good short field characteristics and to have control characteristics matched to the skills of less experienced pilots. A four-cylinder Volkswagen air-cooled engine was selected for reliability and ease of maintenance. The sole example was constructed over ten months without plans, though a rib jig and propeller plot were used. It was first flown in May 1972.

The Draggin' Fly had a constant chord parasol wing, built around two spruce spars and having slight dihedral. The wing was Dacron covered and carried no flaps; the ailerons were aluminium with a full span torque tube. It was held well above the fuselage on a pair of V-shaped bracing struts, assisted by inverted V-cabane struts fore and aft of the cockpit. The fuselage was a steel tube structure and Dacron covered over the forward, pod like part that housed the engine and cockpit but open and triangular in section as it extended rearwards into a tailboom at cabane height. The tail surfaces were again Dacron covered steel, wire braced with the tailplane placed at the bottom of the boom and with the lower rudder and a small ventral fin projecting below it. The Draggin' Fly had a fixed tricycle undercarriage, the mainwheels mounted on two V-form struts and half-axles hinged to the fuselage underside. All undercarriage legs used spring and rubber in compression type shock absorbers; the nose wheel was steerable.

For its first flight and first eight hours of flight testing the Draggin' Fly was powered by a 36 hp (29 kW), 1.2 L Volkswagen engine but this was then replaced by a more powerful Volkswagen variant producing 50 hp (37 kW). Plans for amateur building were produced in March 1974.

## Specifications

Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1974–75

General characteristics

* Crew: One
* Length: 17 ft 5 in (5.31 m)
* Wingspan: 24 ft 5 in (7.44 m)
* Height: 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
* Wing area: 110 sq ft (10 $m^2)$
* Airfoil: USA 35B
* Empty weight: 470 lb (213 kg)
* Max takeoff weight: 688 lb (312 kg)
* Fuel capacity: 8.0 US gal (6.7 Imp gal; 30 L)
* Powerplant: 1 × 1.6 L (98 cu in) modified Volkswagen air-cooled flat four, 50 hp (37 kW)
* Propellers: 2-bladed hand carved mahogany, 4 ft 4 in (1.32 m) diameter

Performance

* Maximum speed: 70 mph (110 km/h, 61 kn) at sea level
* Cruise speed: 65 mph (105 km/h, 56 kn) at sea level
* Stall speed: 32 mph (51 km/h, 28 kn)
* Never exceed speed: 100 mph (160 km/h, 87 kn)
* Range: 170 mi (270 km, 150 nmi) no reserves
* Service ceiling: 4,000 ft (1,200 m)
* Rate of climb: 200 ft/min (1.0 m/s) at sea level
* Wing loading: 6.25 lb/sq ft (30.5 $kg/m^2)$ maximum
* Take-off run: 150 ft (46 m)
* Landing run: 200 ft (61 m)
