This website will chronicle the process of building a Velocity airplane.  The Velocity is a high-performance composite construction airplane that can be built in under the FAA Experimental Type.  It can be purchased as a kit from Velocity Aircraft.

After finishing the complete rebuild of a Porsche 911, my workshop was empty, I was bored and needed another project.  Initially, I focused on the smaller planes like the ZenithAir Zodiac, but realized that these planes are not really suited for long flights and are more for just toodling around the area.  I then got very serious about the Cozy IV.  It is a higher performance plane with a 1000mi range and 200mph cruising speed.  After trying to sit in a couple Cozy IV’s, though, I found that it was going to be pretty tight for my 6′4″ frame.  After returning from a flight lesson in October, though, there was a Velocity parked on the ramp at KORH.  It was a beautiful plane, much like the Cozy IV, but it had gull-wing doors and fully adjustable bucket seats making it very easy to get in/out of.  After speaking with the owner/builder, Terry Miles I was convinced this was the plane for me.

Like many big projects that take years to complete, it is not to tough to find a partially-constructed project that can save a lot of time, and money.  After searching for several months, I bought my Velocity partially constructed from the Hayes family in WI.  Jack Hayes was an aircraft mechanic then airline pilot for Northwest Airlines, retiring as a captain.  Jack purchased his Velocity kit in 1995 and worked on it on and off until 2008 when he passed away.  When I purchased the kit in November 2009, most of the major glass work had been completed.  The fuselage was essentially complete, the wings and control surfaces were done.  Jack had been working on the interior when he passed away. and had it shipped to my home in MA. I will need to fit an engine and avionics, finish and paint the exterior of the plane and finish the interior.

This Velocity is a SE-RG-LW.  The “SE” indicates it is standard (Velocity also makes a larger XL version), the RG indicates it has retractable gear, and the LW indicates it is the “long wing” version.  This longer wing allows it to have more lift at low airspeeds to allow shorter field landing/takeoffs.