Big Turboprop Kitplane
The big Epic LT single-engine turboprop is flying in Lakeland this week, and CEO Rick Schrameck said there is a lot of interest in the design. The six-seat carbon-fiber airplane has a big, powerful, graceful look, and strong performance specs with 350-knot airspeed, 1,600-nm range, and 1,350-pound payload. It’s being sold as an Experimental aircraft. The airplane is assembled at Epic’s facility in Bend, Ore., where the new owner gets full factory support while contributing the FAA-mandated 51-percent effort. “The FAA is very comfortable with the way we do it,” says Schrameck. “We’ve taken the Experimental category about as far as you can take it.” It takes the owner about four to six weeks of time, and the complete project can be ready-to-fly in about four months, he said. The LT runs with a Pratt & Whitney PT-6, up to a maximum certified ceiling of 31,000 feet. It debuted at Oshkosh last summer, just a year after the design was announced. It sells for about $1.2 million.
