Specialized aircraft for aid and missionary work

[ChrisG]

Article from AIR International, Aug.1991:

I produced this CAD drawing based upon a pencil drawing David Lockspeiser sent me.

 

[ChrisG]

Here's another trace I did showing the float plane version.

 

[Hobbes]

I think the Kodiak (Quest Aircraft) was developed with financial support from Missionary and non-profit relief organizations. The Kodiak is in production and I understand that every 10th aircraft is made available for Missionary work at cost price.
I understand that the small Weilage Boon Jr. Helicopter of Mr. Arthur Weilage (Weilage Helicopter Company) was also developed with Missionary work in mind.
A picture of the Evangel 1 (the high wing prototype which preceded the Evangel 4500) is on the evangel4500 site above under prototype.

I just came across an article in the MAF magazine that confirms this.

The Quest company was founded in 2001 by former MAF pilots and technicians. They wanted to develop a replacement for the Cessna 206. They did a proposal, and MAF USA financed part of the development. In return, Quest would use the profit from sold aircraft to make about 1 in 10 aircraft available to MAF at a reduced cost.

 

[fortrena]

The following may be of interest.

Strongly interested in the work carried out by missionaries in many developing countries, mainly in Africa it seems, Ron Mason of Belleville, Ontario, came to believe that a high-performance, solid, inexpensive and easy to make or repair aircraft could be of great help to them.

The interest of this Canadian of British origin who had served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War for the role of aviation in mission work went back to 1975, when he had talked to pilots who were taking the same course with the American organization Missionary Aviation Fellowship.

The prototype of the two-seater that Mason developed, the CA-05 Christavia Mk I, or Christavia 2, flew in 1982. This aircraft bore some resemblance to light/private aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s such as the Piper Cub or the Aeronca Champ.

Transport Canada having relaxed the regulations concerning homebuilt aircraft, in 1984, to allow the manufacture of heavier four-seat aircraft, Mason began the design of the CH-08 Christavia Mk IV, or Christavia 4. A prototype of this aircraft inspired by the Cessna Model 172 Skyhawk flew in December 1985.

Elmwood Aviation, a small company founded around 1980-82 and based in Belleville, then Frankford, Ontario, sold sets of plans for both aircraft. Even before the end of 1986, 200 or so homebuilders from various countries, including Brazil, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Sweden, were gradually putting together Christavia Mk Is. Mason sold the rights of his aircraft to an American distributor of plans for homebuilt aircraft, Aircraft Spruce & Specialty, at an uncertain date.

 

[fortrena]

This might also be of interest.

Canaero Dynamics Aircraft of Rexdale, Ontario, developed a two-seat ultralight with engines fore and aft of a short fuselage, a configuration identical to that of the larger Cessna Model 336 Skymaster and Model 337 Super Skymaster. A prototype of the Toucan, a unique machine in the world of ultralights, flew in 1983.

One of the designers of the Toucan was Peter Corley, an engineer, co-founder of Ultraflight of Port Colborne, Ontario, and co-designer of the famous Ultraflight Lazair ultralight. Corley put the engines of the Toucan in its fuselage to minimize the impact of a mid-flight engine failure, a useful feature for an aircraft intended for use by flying schools, as well as by missionaries in many developing countries.

Corley's brother took over the reins of the company in 1984 following his death in a crash while conducting a test flight.

Canaero Dynamics Aircraft seemingly sold a few airworthy Toucans from 1986, or even 1985, onward. The Ontario aircraft manufacturer may have also sold a few kits. It is worth noting that the Toucan won an honorable mention at the 1985 EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In.

Another small company, Novadyne Aircraft of Kettleby, Ontario, resumed production of the Toucan even before the end of the 1980s. It seemed to disappear around 1990-91.

The number of Toucan produced by Canaero Dynamics and Novadyne was quite small, maybe up to 50 or so.