What made me think about the Titan 180 on a Highlander came from a discussion I had with John McBean at Kitfox Aircraft about him putting that engine in their Super Sport stock airframe. He said the plane is awesome to fly and aside from having a lot more power it handles pretty much the same as the Continental IO 240 or Lycoming 0-235 versions that have been flying for years. Oh, and also worth mentioning, there is a guy flying a Titan 180 powered Kitfox Super Sport ON AMPHIB FLOATS for a while now. John said it is pretty incredible!
So thinking how well the Kitfox is working out is what really made me wonder how long before someone pieced together the "Super Highlander"? Now I will admit if you were to extend the Highlander fuselage and beef up the airframe it would be that much better, but when you compare the Kitfox Super Sport to the Highlander, in many regards the Highlander is already the larger of the two aircraft, and has a much larger tail, so based on that it should handle the Titan at least as good as the Super Sport Kitfox, shouldn't it? Oh, and built as an experimental rather than an LSA, the gross weights of the Kitfox and the Highlander are essentially the same, so that shouldn't be an issue.
Now don't get me wrong, I love my Rotax powered Highlander. But as I see people moving more and more towards larger horsepower engines, I was thinking "Aw, what the heck? Go big or stay home...".
Plus it was kinda quiet here on the forum
