It certainly has been a very difficult past year for the entire country, let alone Infinity Entertainment. We managed to weather the storm fairly well, clamped down on spending and focus on doing what ever it takes to keep our basic infrastructure in place so we have a future. To date, it seemed to have paid off. As of July, we will be aggressively pursuing a title sponsor for the 2010 airshow season. It requires significant resources to do but we feel the timing is good. Improvements in the collective American psyche regarding the economy have people fairly optimistic and that includes Infinity Entertainment. We have reached out to a few bellwether Fortune 1000 clients of ours who echo our sentiments.
The 2009 airshow season is now well on its way with very favorable attendance records considering the economic conditions. Historically, in down turns in the economy, airshows seem to do very well. Some has to do with the cost/value proposition and some has to do with it being a family affair. At any rate, this is a season we wish we were part of. Nothing could be more frustrating than to have a highly anticipated, high dollar asset sitting in a hangar awaiting its debut. It a frustration the entire team seems to share.
As always, we will continue to share our journey of securing a title sponsor with all of you. We want to thank you all for your continued support for the past eighteen months, it is such a boost to the entire team. Thank you.
The 2008 AOPA Expo San Jose was a total success for Team Turbine Toucan. We met some wonderful people and it was a great opportunity to share the bird with everyone. Are hats are off to the entire AOPA team, they were wonderful hosts. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to work with AOPA in the future. We'd like to thank Sean Sharif for the photo!
Infinity Entertainment Inc. is proud to announce that the Turbine Toucan will make its first ever, inaugural public appearance at the AOPA Expo in San Jose California this November 6-8. We are excited that AOPA has extended this fantastic opportunity to us to share with the World this very special aircraft. It is a wonderful venue to connect with like-minded aviation enthusiasts and share our passion for flight.
It is absolutely the perfect venue at the perfect time and the entire team could not be happier about it. We’ve been waiting a very long time for this day and it is finally coming. We really hope you can make it out, stop by and say hello!
For more information please click on the provided link http://www.aopa.org/expo/
Aero News Network’s Paul Plack catches up with Infinity Entertainment’s Dave Kervinen and the continued progress of the Turbine Toucan. Last time we spoke with Paul the Turbine Toucan made its first flight. So, a lot to cover this past year! We invite you to listen in tomorrow when the podcast will be made available for download on Aero News Network’s website (www.aero-news.net).
http://www.aero-news.net/podcasts/casts ... -09-09.mp3
You ever wake up on a Monday morning with little expectations other then the typical mountain of work ahead of you for the week? Well, my Monday started off like any other Monday but this was a day that just seemed to get better with time, and for a Monday, that is a rare event!
Susan Cress and I had just completed a very nice call with a company that really understands what our program is all about which, in itself was very refreshing. It always helps when a company is also involved in and understands the aviation industry. At the end of the call I headed out to the airport to check on a few things and have breakfast with the usual gang at the Sky Kitchen.
Well, Willie Turner of Hiller Aviation Museum comes walking in, in his usual upbeat stride saying hello to about everyone in the coffee shop. This time around he had a guest. Willie came over and said “David, I want you to meet Kermit, Kermit Weeks”. WOW, I’ve known about Kermit for years but have never had the pleasure of meeting him. Willie wanted Kermit to see the Turbine Toucan, an aircraft that Kermit had not heard of, until today.
At the end of lunch Willie arranged for Kermit to stop by and see the plane before heading out on business. I’m guessing, based on what Willie told him on the drive over to the hangar, his expectations were fairly low. After all, Kermit owns the most prolific aircraft collection in the world and is a guy who’s been there, done that and seen it all.
When we opened the hangar door, I believe Kermit’s eye’s lit up in a big way. Being that Kermit is a three-time U.S. Aerobatic Champion, he instantly understood exactly what he was looking at and the staggering potential of the aircraft. He walked around the plane several times. As he did, he asked some very good questions few people ever have ever asked.
Though he is a giant in the aviation world, he is a very approachable, down to earth person with a great sense of humor. I really enjoyed our meeting and hope we get opportunity to spend more time together down the road.
If you haven’t had the chance, I would highly recommend a visit to Kermit’s Museum, which is called Fantasy of Flight. It is just off Interstate 4 in Polk City, Florida, just down the road from Orlando and Disney World. I’ve been there on several occasions and it really is a wonderful experience if you love aviation, like most of us.
For more information on Fantasy of Flight please go to www.fantasyofflight.com, you will not be disappointed!
To learn more about the man himself, Forbes did a great article a while back called “Mad For Airplanes” http://www.forbes.com/2001/01/15/0115garage.html
As I understand it, Kermit has some VERY big plans for his museum, so I highly recommend keeping an eye out for developments, should be very exciting times at Fantasy of Flight.
-Have a great week!
After about three months in the making, the Turbine Toucan is returning to flight status. Team Turbine Toucan had elected to re-design the instrument panel due to some deficiencies with original design. We had learned over the course of 50 hours that it was very difficult to monitor the engine parameters when taking off and in some aerobatic maneuvers. On take off, the acceleration is so fast that one cannot be looking inside the cockpit. It is during this most critical time that the engine needs to me monitored.
We now have complete aural alert system for every engine parameter. We get both audible and visual cues now making it much easier to operate the aircraft. With the immensely customizable Electronics International MVP-50T, we were able to consolidate more then 15 instruments into a very small footprint. We also have audible cues for reminders for switching tanks, bleed air heat data and the list just keeps on going.
After two month of being locked up in our hangar due to no taxiways (KSQL Construction) we are happy to get the plane back in the air. Though we did use the down time well, it sure will be nice to return to working on the very purpose of this aircraft, aerobatics.
As we mentioned the other day, we are now just starting to play with profiles for our “official” FAI sanctioned time to climb attempt for both 0-3000m & 0-6000m. Butch Pfeifer and friend Debbie (serving with the Army as a flight engineer on the Chinook and heading back to Afghanistan next month) accompanied the Toucan down to King City to visit friends at Tutima Academy (formally Sean Tucker’s school of Aerobatics) on Saturday the 17th. King City is a perfect venue to climb straight out to 10,000ft without airspace/traffic issues.
Our first and only attempt was really just a practice and was done on our departure back to San Carlos. The Toucan was loaded with nearly 80 gallons of fuel, in a record attempt we might only have 30 gallons on board. Right off we were carrying 335 extra pounds, which makes a huge difference.
First time out of the gate we broke the C-1C class world record by more then a minute and a half! This was a best angle of climb attempt more then a time attempt for team Turbine Toucan. From take off to 10,000ft. we maintained a 75º deck angle, which doesn’t get us there nearly as fast but provides a lot of fantastic data in the process.
Airspeed was in the 80-90kt range all the way up. What was really fascinating after leveling off at 10,000ft in almost 2 minutes flat was that we never really left the airport. The toucan was just at the end of King City’s 4400ft runway when we arrived at our first destination in route to San Carlos.
The next attempt we’ll be keeping the airspeed up at about 120kts all the way up to 10,000ft and with only 30 gallons onboard. This should make a HUGE difference as we continue to get the time down. Still, today’s record broke the 35 year standing record of 3 minutes and 30 seconds by nearly 40% (at 2 minutes) not to bad for never leaving the airport! Team Turbine Toucan is VERY excited about the potential of this aircraft and today's practice reinforces our enthusiasm.
Infinity Entertainment and Tjaart van Rooy of VR Avionics have been hard at work increasing overall performance of the Turbine Starter/Limiter monitoring system. In a few weeks time we will now have full In-Flight limiting of all parameters. This is a huge step forward for Team Turbine Toucan. When we are flying hard charging, low-level aerobatics, we are looking outside the cockpit.
Though we have crew monitoring trends on the ground and reporting any unusual trends to the pilot via a discreet frequency, it still requires pilot input to correct the exceedence. The latency in communication from the ground to the pilot might only be a few seconds, but that is a critical few seconds when you can overspeed N2 or have large spikes in ITT.
The new system completely eliminates pilot input for corrections, which greatly reduces pilot workload when high power and low altitudes are experienced.
Tjaart has also added significant telemetry interface updates for the ground crew. Now we can completely data log the entire flight. We can also display on a graph all engine parameters, which now give you graphical trend data in real-time. This allows us to play back historical data and map it with any particular maneuver to see what, if any effect it has on the Turbine.
This is really ground breaking technology for Turboprops! We can’t thank Tjaart and Maurits enough for the continued support; it is this kind of dedication and support that has made the project a reality.
Infinity Entertainment’s www.turbinetoucan.com receives over 3 million hits! The entire infinity entertainment team is grateful for a loyal following. In just a few months time, since the announcement of the Turbine Toucan, we have received over 3 million hits. Most, if not all traffic to the site has been viral, which absolutely delights us. We have only had one press release, which was the introduction of the aircraft a few months back, way before the plane had even flown.
We are grateful for all the support we have had worldwide. Now that the test phase is complete, we are going to spend more time keeping things fresh on the website. More in-flight images, video and stories to follow as we head into two separate programs. World record attempts and exploring the vertical/aerobatic program for 2008 air show season.
All in all, we are grateful for a very good first six month with the Turbine Toucan and www.turbinetoucan.com.
Infinity Entertainment Inc. and the Turbine Toucan team is set to attempt several world records this November 2007. Now that the test phase is complete, we are going to focus on several world records, including time to climb. The team is preparing for two FAI time-to-climb records to include 0-3000m and 0-6000m altitudes. Piloting the world record attempts will be Team Owner/Founder David Kervinen.The team will work closely with NAA in coordination of these attempts and will keep you posted when final dates are selected, weather permitting.
Today represents the pinnacle in the test phase of the Turbine Toucan. Our very last systems tests were an overwhelming success. We developed a proprietary oil system designed to help prolong vertical flight. The system performed flawlessly today. We simulated oil pressure loss and the system took over and provided oil at the exact same oil pressure and volume. The system worked transparently, the engine never knew the difference.
This last test concludes nearly six months of work. We officially start working the plane through the aerobatic regime full time from here on out. This moment represents the biggest achievement so far, a successful aircraft that has lived up to all our expectations.
Exciting news from the Toucan Team; we have slowly started introducing aerobatics/unusual attitudes into our test regime. The airplane saw extreme angle of attack attitudes (75%+ deck angle) at very slow speeds. We then brought in the power and was able to accelerate out of high alpha to between 3500-4000fpm maintaining the same deck angle. This is all in an effort to work into hovering and accelerating out of the vertical, so we are on track.
Lots of traditional maneuvers have been explored, and the control harmony of the plane is better than we have expected. We’ve been as fast as 200kts straight and level cruise so we are creeping up on the speed.
We have had 12 squawk free flights and have now introduced the entire fuel system. The duration of flights is now well over an hour. Our next venture is to go up high and establish all the at altitude profiles for the plane before we close out the phase one test flights. We are quickly rounding up on 40 hours, so we’ll be able to return to SQL in about another week. Then it is off to exploring the potential of the aircraft.
Ken Erickson made his first flight in the Turbine Toucan today. Ken will be working closely with Dave Kervinen and Butch Pfeifer to work through the remainder of the test flight phase of the program. After that, the Turbine Toucan is all Ken’s to explore and develop a world class routine for the 2008 debut season. Ken will be campaigning the Turbine Toucan full time starting next year.
As Ken prepares to start to explore the aerobatic envelop in the coming months, David Kervinen will start to work on the performance oriented world record attempts with assistance from Butch.
The before and after flight photos. The first, Ken's got some butterflies going on. The second photo, says it all! He's just flown one of the World's Most High Performance Civilian Aircraft flying.
After over a year of working closely with David and Ken, the fruits of all Butch’s labor finally pays off. Butch made his maiden flight today at 8am. We have an hour and a half commute each way to the aircraft. We couldn’t pry the smile off Butch’s face the entire drive home. Butch has flown more then 350 types of aircraft, logged over 33,000 hours and retired a captain of the 747-400. But nothing was going to prepare him for the kind of performance he saw yesterday. And all Butch could do was to repeat the phrase “and I was only at 50% power, the potential is staggering”.
What is really staggering to us is the level of commitment Butch has made to the entire program. He literally put his life on hold for the past year to see us through this most amazing journey. Butch inspires us all, has been a wonderful mentor and most importantly, became a very close friend.
THANK YOU BUTCH!
Today we were taking the day off, sitting around the coffee shop and talking about the performance Dave was seeing his past few flights. When Dave said he was past 4500ft. AGL by the end of the runway we thought, OK that's cool and didn't think anymore about it. Well, we went back to one of the video's when Dave made that comment and timed him to when he pushed over and leveled out, which was at 4500 ft., that was 32 seconds from wheels up.
At that rage, he was doing 8,400 feet per minute! THIS WAS NOT FULL POWER! Our analog VSI only goes up to 6000fpm, so we really didn't know what kind of performance we sustained as that was not really the mission of the flight. It's when you sit down, take a minute to reflect on things do you really start thinking about what we got going on here. I'm a actually a little stunned.
Dave Morss has been very methodical regarding the addition of power on every flight, so we are excited to find out what we get when we start introducing full power take-offs.
We are proud to introduce yet another great marketing partner to join Infinity Entertainment’s Turbine Toucan Program. Tesla Industries designs and manufactures the world’s finest high power, portable GPU available anywhere. Tesla’s market includes Military and Civilian/General Aviation markets. The Turbine Toucan program will help Tesla reach a broader General Aviation market through their sponsorship of the Turbine Toucan.
We are very proud to represent Tesla Industries while campaigning the Turbine Toucan and believe it is going to be a wonderful relationship! Look for our start cart, which will be coming online in the next few weeks!
Para-Phernalia Inc. and Silver Parachutes Sales and Service join forces to support Infinity Entertainment's Turbine Toucan Team with Softie parachutes. Para-Phernalia, Inc. has designed and manufacturing the SOFTIE line of pilot emergency parachutes since 1979. Their emergency parachutes are known world wide for being the highest quality, most comfortable, and reliable emergency parachutes available.
Silver Parachute Sales and Service, Para-Phernalia's largest dealer is owned and operated by master rigger Allen Silver who will continue to support the Turbine Toucan Team going forward. Infinity Entertainment has been a customer of Allen's for some time and we are excited to take the relationship to the next level.
We are thrilled to be partnering with two world-class companies.
For more information about the world's best emergency parachute systems click the link below.
www.softieparachutes.com
For more information about Silver Parachute Sales and Service click the link below.
www.silverparachutes.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WORLD’S FIRST EVER HOVERING BIPLANE TAKES FLIGHT
The Turbine Toucan makes first flight
HOLLISTER, California – May 9, 2007 – Infinity Entertainment’s Turbine Toucan, piloted by Test Pilot Dave Morss, successfully completes first flight. Beating all expectations, the plane performed flawlessly. Weighing in at just over 1,650 pounds, powered by a 750 horsepower turbo prop delivering almost 3,000 lbs of thrust, the Turbine Toucan is the highest performance biplane ever built.
After 14 months, 5,200 man hours and overcoming various technical complexities, it all came down to today’s defining moment. Over the course of the past 30 days, the Turbine Toucan has undergone exhaustive testing to prepare for today’s first flight which took place just after 9:00 am PT.
Learning to fly an aerobatic aircraft with a positive thrust to weight ratio is a daunting task! More people have walked on the moon then have experience with an aerobatic aircraft with a 1.5:1 thrust to weight ratio. Taking on the challenge of exploring the 3-D aerobatic potential of the Turbine Toucan is aerobatic pilot, Ken Erickson. Ken comes to Infinity Entertainment as one of the world’s premiere aerobatic instructors. Ken brings to Infinity Entertainment extensive experience in a variety of aircraft and has over 10,000 hours. Ken will draw on his 27 years of experience as he develops and designs the Turbine Toucan airshow program for the 2008 airshow season. Dave Morss will continue to conduct all preliminary testing before turning the Turbine Toucan over to the Infinity Entertainment’s airshow Team.
The Turbine Toucan will make four world record attempts in 2007, two of which will be made this summer. Records include time-to-climb, world’s fastest biplane and world’s only hovering biplane.
Founded in 1992, Infinity Entertainment Inc. is a multi-faceted Entertainment and Event Marketing Company dedicated to providing highly differentiated, ROI driven world-class experiences. The company is composed of innovative, best-of-breed creatives who have years of hands-on experience managing, positioning, developing and executing awareness for some of the world's leading brands.
We are excited to receive the kind of support we have had with the AOPA. The worldwide reception of our aircraft continues to humble us all at Infinity Entertainment.
Greetings everyone! Keep your eyes out for the next addition of InFlight USA. The Turbine Toucan made the cover of the May addition. Friend Herb Foreman wrote the article for InFlight. I promised Herb a year ago he would have first crack at a story when we were done building the plane. We are very fortunate to have made it on the cover and are very appreciative of the excitement we received from Inflight USA team.
Go Flying! is published by Archant Specialist who also publish Pilot Magazine, Europe's biggest selling GA magazine. We hope we'll get a mention in both! We're excited in the continued interest in Europe. Our website is seeing significant traffic from all over Europe with big spikes from Finland, France, Belgium and the Russian Federation.
Tuesday was another successful day. We have done a lot to learn roll out characteristics of the plane. As Dave Morss eased in the power, it only took him a few seconds to get from 0-60kts. What was more exciting was the 60-110kts, that only took about a second! We might add this was not full power but closer to 75% N1! So, you can start to see where this is going…
Uncharted territory for a biplane no doubt. Hopefully we’ll be posting video soon.
We are excited that ICAS has been so supportive in our initial rollout of the aircraft. www.airshows.org
The traffic levels have been completely overwhelming to Team Toucan. We're making the assumption that people still love biplanes. Stay tuned for upcoming video of the Turbine Toucan's first flight. Check back regularly!
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