Warp Drive LX7 establishes time and speed records
Whoever said records are made to be broken must have known something about RDD, an experimental aircraft manufacturer from Redmond, Oregon. In March of this year, just before COVID-19 quarantines went into place. Oregon resident Paul Hodge piloted his LX7 personal aircraft from Redmond, Oregon to Anchorage, in
just six hours for, a new all-time record for that distance.
After arriving in Anchorage, Hodge and co-pilot Laird Hamilton, CMO of Laird Superfoods in Sisters, Oregon, were picked up for an epic day of heli-skiing and boarding at Tordrillo Mountain Lodge.
Hodge was delighted at how the LX7’s average airspeed of almost 269 mph with standard range made it so easy to get there despite less than favourable winds.
It is pretty amazing to be able to climb into your own
plane and be someplace epic so quickly,” he said. “Virtually every other personal aircraft would have had to stop to refuel in Canada, which would mean wasting an hour or more going through customs.
To prove the six-hour outward bound flight was no fluke, Hodge hopped in his LX7 a few days later and flew back to Redmond in just 5.5 hours, shattering his own record with an average speed of 317 mph. “Setting two records in two flights was pretty amazing,” said Hodge. “However, I think it is even more incredible that I had enough fuel left on the return flight to continue all the way to Los Angeles if I wanted to.”
Thanks to RDD’s relentless innovation, the LX7 piston-powered aircraft is quickly becoming known for doing unheard of things in the air, including:
• Climbing at a rate of 2,000 feet / minute.
• Extending range with a fuel capacity of 180 gallons.
• Traveling 2,125 nautical miles in as little as 8.5 hours.
“For many years, the Holy Grail for experimental aircraft was the ability to fly 1,000 nautical miles without stopping,” said David McRae, RDD’s Co-Owner and Director of Marketing, Sales & Business Development. “However, these days the LX7 just obliterates that mark with the efficiency to go 2.5 times that distance.”
With its exceptional range, it is only natural that McRae and the crew at RDD have their sights set on breaking the record for flying from coast to coast. However, travelling exceptional distances is just the beginning of what makes the LX7 so unique.
The team at RDD has gone to great lengths to make every mile more comfortable with hand-crafted heated leather seats, ergonomic controls and a pressurised cabin. In addition, safety has been enhanced as well with an automated fuel management system, airbag front seat restraints, as well as a whole-aircraft parachute, amongst other reassuring features. The LX7’s advancements in speed, distance, comfort and safety couldn’t come at a better time as flights on commercial airlines become less convenient and more restrictive.
What is more, aviation enthusiasts from all over the world will be able to take a closer look at the LX7 at the EAA AirVenture held in Oshkosh, Wisconsin goes online later this month. Sadly, Air Venture has subsequently been cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Says McRae: “We are extremely proud of the fact that our planes are regularly breaking records for speed and distance, not with professional test pilots flying in heavily modified aircraft under optimum conditions, but with regular people like Paul Hodge just doing what they enjoy most. To us, that is the ultimate sense of freedom.”