by av8rps » Mon Jan 18, 2016 9:38 am
Oops! I did miss that.
A stretched Highlander with an 0-320 has been essentially done before, it's called an Avid Magnum. The only real difference is that it was probably quite a bit beefier everywhere as it had a gross weight of 1750 originally, moved to 1850 later. Its empty weight was right around 1,000 lbs. It was a great performer, and yes, it cruised faster, about 125 to 130 (the Avid / Dean Wilson airfoil is faster than the Highlanders' as it is just a bit thinner... like 3/8th of an inch) The Magnum is a very nice flying plane.
I wouldn't be surprised if the design wasn't the major inspiration for the conception of the Highlander. The most major difference was that it used flaperons vs standard flaps and ailerons, and the Highlander is somewhat "Downsized" by comparison, to fly with a 912 and qualify as a LSA.
If you want to learn more about it, watch "The Avid Advantage II "on you tube. It's a great video that really does a good job showing the Magnum as well as the lineage of our planes today. And there is is some really great flying in it showing just what one can do with planes like this.
I obviously don't want to take any sales away from Troy and Gary, but I'm guessing they will tell you the Highlander as it is can't handle an 0-320, and the Super Stol fuselage is very different than a Highlander, so I believe they'd have to modify a SS XL fuselage extensively to make a Highlander XL out of it.