Thursday, June 18, 2009

The CX-4 had made an appearence in the Popular Flying magazine back in 2006, then an invition to start projects around 2009.

Thatcher CX-4

I’d got myself re-established and a new workshop set-up, so I decided to re-visit what was on offer and not put all my eggs in one basket to begin with. As one option, I took up this invitation, sent off for the plans and applied to the LAA for a project number.

I got the go-ahead and ordered the ribs and bulkhead pre-formed aluminium kit, along with the centre spar section.

Thatcher kit

However, the LAA found a number of issues with the design, so David Thatcher began to make various modification to the design and a trans-altlantic to-and-fro commenced to get the design passed.

Thatcher centre spar

My contingency was making better progress though, Michel Colomban’s Luciole. The CX-4 plans and bits were sold and I believe it was eventually finished as G-CISH in 2015.