What is this distinctive light aircraft?

[tog]

I spotted this in Norway a couple of months ago and have been meaning to ask ever since then. It has a canard at the front, a low swept wing at the back, no central fin or tailplane, push-pull props and fixed tricycle undercarriage. I took a (very poor - I didn't have a long lens with me) photo.



It's pretty distinctive, but I can't work out what it is, which bugs me with the unusual stuff!

[Eric Mc]

It looks like one of the Rutan family of light planes.

[edfrp]

Rutan Defiant.

Edited by edfrp on Monday 16th November 13:28

[Geneve]

There's one at Gloucestershire Airport.

http://gallery109415.fotopic.net/p8908491.html

[JoePublic]

Isn't Burt Rutan involved with Virgin Galactic these days?

[Eric Mc]

Yes.

His company is called Scaled Composites and they have produced a number of record breaking flying machines.

[tog]

edfrp said:

Rutan Defiant.

Edited by edfrp on Monday 16th November 13:28

Excellent , thank you. There don't seem to be many of these around, so given the Norwegian registration in this picture I suspect it's probably this aircraft I saw.

Thanks all

[Caruso]

My favourite was always the Optica, quite rare though.

[tog]

Caruso said:

My favourite was always the Optica, quite rare though.

I remember them well from airshows when I was a kid. I have a brochure for it somewhere.

[Simpo Two]

^ I can't help thinking he found have a Gazelle in a scrapyard and thought 'What can I do with this?'

[JuniorD]

The RUC in Northern Ireland trialled one of these Opticas in the mid-80s, I remember seeing it flying around. Didn't one police force in England have one that crashed around the same time?

Edited by JuniorD on Wednesday 18th November 12:12

[ndtman]

JuniorD said:

The RUC in Northern Ireland trialled one of these Opticas in the mid-80s, I remember seeing it flying around. Didn't one police force in England have one that crashed around the same time?

Edited by JuniorD on Wednesday 18th November 12:12

Hampshire police had one that crashed..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgley_Optica

I remember seeing one in Shropshire years ago that coincided with a royal visit.

[Geneve]

The idea was that it would provide a low cost alternative to Police helicopters for observation work.

However, there were technical issues, it would never be as versatile as a helicopter, and the crash didn't help.