Furio Air 2 Air.

[Gavin Conroy]

Here are two shots from the Hercules at Wanaka and more photos can be found here.
capphotography.fotopic.net/c1535208.html

It would be nice to fly a Furio some time.

[sniff]

Is this what I saw Scott Dixon flying on tv last night?
His seemed like a fixed u/c type though......

[Bruce]

No Scott was flying A Cirrus I think - or the new Cessna 400. Theres only the one Furio at the moment (although Giovanni says the first batch of 12 kits will be ready for dispatch any day now)

[FlyingKiwi]

I noticed a while ago when I passed the Furio doing runups at Ardmore that the "experimental" decal now reads just "mental"!

-Leo P

[Bruce]

Shes out of test flying now - the Experimental decal is no longer required - The remainder is good for a laugh!

[hardyakka]

the Experimental decal is no longer required

Does that mean that the Furio has received a type certificate from CAA? I thought all non-certificated aircraft had to display the "Experimental" message regardless of how much flying they had done. Can you clarify the rules Bruce?

P.S.
Great photos Gavin!
I'd also love to take a jaunt in a Furio. Giovanni should line up all the wannabe Furista and take some cash off us for a joyride some day. I just made that word up, BTW...

[Bruce]

Once the flight testing period is complete, the aircraft becomes a "special category - amateur Built" under the lastest rules, leaving experimental for aircraft in an "experimental" phase.

[Dave Homewood]

The black canopy makes it look like an r/c model

[stu]

Only two weeks late discovering this in the Herald.

The Furio still gets my vote for one of the sexiest aircraft around

www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=556&objectid=10524764&pnum=0

Revisiting the fast and the Furio
4:00AM Monday August 04, 2008
By Jacqueline Smith

The Nustrini brothers took their first flight in a Falco aircraft when they were just a few months old.

So while their latest business venture Falcomposite may be revolutionary, it is really a case of them getting back to their roots.

Their father, Luciano, used to zip around in a 50s Falco in Italy he flew it to work, for pleasure and in competitions.

Five years ago Giovanni Nustrini pulled his father's aeroplane drawings out of a drawer.

Sketched in 1978, they showed a new and improved Falco and included designs for the aircraft's factory.

He called a friend and they began carving the shape of the aircraft out of a piece of polystyrene in the garage.

"It was sleek, it was racy," Nustrini says.

The Falco is a popular light aircraft and the market was waiting for a higher performing version, he says.

"I realised we needed to make this into a commercial operation, rather than just building a one-off."

Giovanni Nustrini joined the aviation industry 10 years ago; before that he ran a ski resort in the Italian Dolomites.

Needing a break from hospitality, he joined his family in New Zealand and started a company, Tecnam - importing and exporting light, recreational aircraft.

But as he blew the dust off his father's designs, Nustrini knew he had discovered the ultimate business project.

His architect brother Lapo became his business partner and the pair spent a solid two years producing the Furio essentially a high-tech evolution of the Falco.

Luciano's design had to be altered to, quite literally, fit the target market.

"Our target market is the United States and Americans are quite large. But in any case the human race has grown taller in the last couple of years. We saw it was going to be very sleek and gorgeous but pretty much useless."

A team of technical experts was brought on board.

It was a big job you can't just increase the size of the cabin without altering every other component of the aircraft, Nustrini says.

"The challenge was to transform the original design which our father did, which was in itself an evolution of the original Falco, into something that could fit today's sized people and yet look good and perform well."

Falcomposite's next challenge stemmed from its decision to use relatively new carbon fibre technology to make the aircraft.

With the backing of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, the Nustrinis were able to borrow America's Cup boatbuilding technology and adapt it to aviation.

"I say borrowed because we took it and developed certain aspects of it and gave it back to them.

The technology allowed the body of the Furio to be built from 20 parts, which Nustrini says is the smallest number of any aircraft in the world. A normal metal recreational plane is made up of around 500 pieces and the original wooden Falco comprises around 2000 pieces.

Like the Falco, the Furio is sold as a kitset, but takes months to assemble, where the Falco can take many years, Nustrini says.

Aviation giants such as Boeing use carbon fibre technology for commercial planes, but Nustrini was not aware of it being used to build small aircraft.

"We basically took [boatbuilding] technology to an aeronautical level, which is much more precise and requires a lot more discipline," he says.

You can't have failures in aircraft there is no AA or coastguard to help you in mid air, Nustrini points out.

Falcomposite's project created government interest because the product was for export, and the research was to be fed back to the marine industry. But like any company, it needed money to break into the market.

Nustrini says he did not want to start the business on little capital and struggle all the way.

Nor did he want to sell production slots in advance.

He hoped to secure an investor and was lucky to find one within a few weeks - Auckland entrepreneur and motorcycle collector Kevin Grant.

"We would have accepted money from anyone obviously, but we were lucky that we found someone who would bring to the table more than just money - experience, belief in the project, interest that was more than just getting a return. That was fantastic," Nustrini says.

In February 2006, Falcomposite moved into its Ardmore premises to start production and on February 6 this year, the Furio prototype flew - twice, as it did not require any changes.

The company is now preparing a pre-production run of five aircraft, and is looking at some minor adjustments "because there are always small things you can do to improve and make the airplanes perfect".

Though the Furio has not officially been launched, Falcomposite has already delivered one plane and sold another eight through New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia, with no advertising. The kits cost about $130,000, bringing the all-up cost to about $200,000 once the buyer has bought the engine.

The current list of orders is enough to keep the company standing on its own two feet, while gearing itself up for a flood of orders following the launch, Nustrini says.

"One of the things we have always done is not to do things faster than we are capable.

"In the aviation industry, there are a lot making a lot of noise but not actually being able to deliver."

Falcomposite aims to officially launch the Furio this time next year at Airventure, the world's largest airshow in Oshkosh, in the US.

The plane is already generating interest in Europe and America, where there are many recreational pilots eager to own the latest toys.

"The American market is crazy. It's very aviation-hungry for something like this.

"The Falco is well-known over there, and this is an evolution," Nustrini says.

He expects to pick up 30 to 50 orders in the months following the show.

Will he and Lapo have to bring on new staff or move to a bigger premises?

"Maybe ... that's a future problem that I really look forward to having to deal with."

[Peter Lewis]

The Falco thing (as far as New Zealand is concerned) started with Luciano Nustrini. He was an Italian architect with a passion for flying. So much so he bought a Aviamilano F8L Falco Series 1 registered as I-ERNA and started to compete in various European air races with this machine. Various modifications were made to aircraft and engine over the years which resulted in the combination being almost unbeatable in its class.
Luciano visited NZ, liked the country, and came to live here in the early 1980s. The Falco arrived in 1983, but ran into a problem with CAA certification due to the various modifications and was unable to be locally registered until these were resolved, which took until 1986. With only slight attention from the signwriter I-ERNA became ZK-RNA. As far as I know, the ZK was never painted on, and the racing number '10' was displayed throughout it's NZ history.

In the Auckland AC hangar at Ardmore 1989


Outside the MAF hangar at Ardmore, January 1999


Luciano Nustrini retained his links with Italy, and played host to the crew of a visiting Italian yacht that visited NZ in early 1999 as part of a round-the-world race. When this yacht left Auckland Harbour on the 6th February 1999, Luciano flew the Falco (with his wife as a passenger) out over the Waitemata to farewell the crew and to take some photographs. After several passes over the yacht, the aircraft was seen to stall at a low level and dive vertically into the sea. No definite explanation for this event has been found. See the CAA accident report at
www.caa.govt.nz/Accident_Reports/ZK-RNA_Fatal_06Feb1999.pdf

Three other Falco F.8L home-builts have been constructed in NZ:
ZK-SMR George R Richards, Auckland - first flight 2Jan04



ZK-TBD started by S H Jensen, Kerikeri and finished by J G Hodge, Christchurch. Stored for some time until bought by Giovanni Nustrini in 2002, currently based at Ardmore.



ZK-FWA/2 B G T Fraser & R J Woods Partnership. Christchurch - a recent build, registered in August 2008.

There is also one other import, Aviamilano Falco F8L Series 1 ex N41854 registered as ZK-JPG to A E Dovey, Wanaka in mid-2003.



The Falcomposite ZK-LLG departed Ardmore on Monday 16th February via Kerikeri, Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island for a sales tour of the Australian air shows.
The only other Falcomposite so far registered in NZ is c/n 2 registered as ZK-NJS/2 to N J Sutherland, Dunedin. Anyone know if this has flown yet?

[hardyakka]

AFAIK, Neil Sutherland is still building his Furio (ZK-NJS). There is a screened off section in Giovanni's hangar at Ardmore behind which Neil is constructing his machine. There was a photo in the last Sport Flying magazine which showed Neil using a laser level for getting the engine mounts aligned.

Bruce, do you know of anyone else who has started construction on one of these babies?