Bugging out? Try the Aggie Volksplane
By CHERYL CESSNA
Battalion Reporter
It has a Volkswagen engine,
but a Beetle it’s not. It’s a Vol
ksplane and it’s being built by a
group of aerospace engineering
students on campus.
Vic White, chairman of the
Volksplane Committee, said the
plane is nearing completion.
“I’d say it’s about 60 to 70 per
cent done. The major construc
tion is finished. The wings are
put together and the fuselage
and the tail are built. And we
have the engine close to being
ready to run.”
White, a senior in aerospace
engineering, said the Evans VP2
really does owe its name to the
VW.
“It’s powered by a modified
Volkswagen automobile engine.
Actually very little modification
has been done on it. It’s direct
drive — there’s no kind of gear
ing between the engine and the
propeller.”
White said the Volksplane
Committee, which is a subcom
mittee of the student branch of
the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, is
self-supporting.
“The AIAA as a subcommittee
finances the plane through stu
dent Coke sales. There’s the
possibility that if we really
needed something we couldn’t
pay for right now we could get
funding through the aerospace
department. But as of now it's a
student project — student-built
and student-funded.
In keeping with this idea, he
said, the committee’s advisors,
Dr. Richard Jenson and Dr. Wal
ter Horn, both assistant profes
sors in aerospace engineering,
don’t do any of the actual work
on the plane.
And the students don’t re
ceive credit for their work, he
said.
“This isn’t a required class.
It’s all voluntary, on a free-time
basis.”
But the students must be
aerospace engineering majors
in order to join the committee, he
said.
The plane committee, which
now has about 35 members, got
its start in 1972, he said.
“They solicited support from
the Houston branch of the AIAA
and got some donations from
them. Then they submitted a
paper on the construction of a
Volksplane to the Bendix Com
petition, which is sponsored by
the AIAA. They won $300 for
that, then took the money and
purchased the plans and started
building on it.”
White said the plane, located
in Room 108 of the Engineering
Building, will be about 19 feet
long with a wingspan of 27 feet
when finished. He said the top
speed will be 100 mph, with a
cruise speed of 75 mph.
“It’s not a high-performance
aircraft,” he said. “It’s kind of a
fly-for-fun, putt-putt type.”
Nevertheless, White said, the
FAA must make sure the plane is
safe.
“When it’s finished, it’ll be cer
tified with the FAA as an experi
mental aircraft. But even before
we can cover it, it has to be in
spected by an FAA inspector. In
fact, we had an FAA inspector
come by and look at it last year
and he said that everything here
was in good shape.”
White said he isn’t sure when
the plane will be finished.
“I think the major problem
we’ve had is people working on it
and then graduating. And then
with the next group of people
coming up it’s kind of a rediscov
ery thing.”
The plane’s future use is still
unclear, he said. “They had in
mind to use it as a test bed for
in-flight experiments, but I really
don’t know what it’ll be used for.”
White said the plane will be
housed in a school-owned han
gar. “The aerospace depart
ment has what they call the
Flight Dynamics Lab out at the
Research Annex where the old
Bran Air Base used to be and we
have a hangar there.”
And who will be the first to fly
the finished product?
“When the time comes, we’ll
find someone to do it, someone
who wants to do it. You just don’t
force anyone to do that.”
Photo by Lynn Blanco
Vic White and John Bruce, both seniors, examine the
VP2 plane being built with a Volkswagon engine. They
and about 35 others are members of the Volksplane
Committee, which is building plane.
focus
THE BATTALION
Focus is published every Thursday as an
entertainment section of The Battalion.
Policy: Focus will accept any stories, drawings or
photographs that are submitted for publication, al
though the decision to publish lies solely with the
editor. Pieces submitted, printed or not, will be re
turned upon request. Deadline is 5 p.m. the Thurs
day before publication.
Contributing to this issue were: Lee Roy Les-
chper Jr., Rhonda Watters,
Lynn Blanco, Keith Taylor and Cheryl Cessna.
Editor: Beth Calhoun
Assistant Editor: Doug Graham
On the Cover: An Aggie bicyclist zooms through a
pedestrian traffic jam on the Texas A&M campus.
More and more people are turning to bicycling as an
alternative to the energy shortage. For information
on how to buy a used bicycle and to keep it safe
once you’ve got it, see page 3. Photo by Lee Roy
Leschper Jr.
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