The pilot and builder of the one-of-a-kind Jet Eze aircraft was killed in the crash of the airplane on approach to the airport in Covington, Tennessee, on Saturday afternoon. Lance Hooley, who adapted the canard design of Burt Rutan’s Long Eze to take a GE-T58-8 engine, died when the aircraft crashed 2,000 feet short of the runway in Covington. None of the local media stories included witness accounts. Although the aircraft looked like a Long Eze, it was substantially altered with a wider cockpit, beefed-up internal structure and integrated winglets. It stood a foot taller than the Long EZE.
Hooley told Kitplanes Magazine the aircraft took off at 80 knots and that was the approach speed. It cruised at 250 knots true on 31 GPH and had a 4.5 hour range. The crash occurred about 5:26 p.m. and a post-crash fire consumed much of the wreck. Hooley debuted the aircraft at Sun ‘n Fun 2017 and AVweb’s Geoff Rapoport prepared this video report.
