I searched for a long time to find a Hiperbipe starting around 2007. I'd seen them in magazines and at airshows and really took a liking to them. In 2010 I was about to pull the trigger on 776HB when a friend in AZ. called and put me in touch with 7HT's owner. Two days later I had a Hiperbipe! I've put around 225 hours on her since then and she is far and away my favorite airplane ever. A wonderful acro plane stressed for +6/-4 g, cross country @ 160mph and 10 gph and almost STOL takeoff and landing performance (500 and 800 respectively). Full flap (there's 4 of 'em) stall is 55, VNE is 225. Gas is in two tanks; main is 26 and acro tank is 13 gallons. That's over 1 hour of upside-down time without needing to flip back over...
The designer was C.K. Sorrell in Tenino, WA.. He and his sons supplied kits that included almost complete wings comprising 3 wood spars, wood ribs and birch plywood skins. All you did was install the top skin and cover however you desired. Unfortunately, the rest of the plane entailed lots of parts that had to be formed, welded, machined and assembled. Build time was listed as 3500+ hours. From 1974 until 1976-ish sales of kits were brisk. Then the Christan Eagle hit the market with lots of pre-fabricated parts and a build time of 1000 hours...☹
7HT was actually built by John and Mark for the owner and used as a "demonstrator"...one look at the welding on the fuselage tubing and you know it was assembled by a pro. Mark Sorrell did the test flights on 7HT in 1982.
As of last year I could find 26 'bipes in the US, 2 in Europe and 1 in the UK. Unfinished kits pop up from time to time.
The Hiperbipe still holds the World Record for outside loops @ 208. (My head hurts just typing that...).
Not hard to work on either...
Anyway, that's my baby...
Chris
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