Ikenga 530Z Ikenga Cygnus 21 Ikenga Cygnus 21 T Ikenga Cygnus 21TX Ikenga Cygnus 21P2 Ikenga E.Z. Bird Return icon
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Ikenga Team
Ikenga 530Z Ikenga Cygnus 21 Ikenga Cygnus 21 T Ikenga Cygnus 21TX Ikenga Cygnus 21P2 Ikenga E.Z. Bird Return icon
Ikenga WindDancer   1986

Proof of Concept Autogyro

Sponsor: Ms. Shiobahn Gradenwitz - Canada

WindDancer was my first success at manifesting my dream to build flying machines. Books by Marty Hollmann and Jerri Barnette provided a good foundation as did Jim Rutan's papers on composite aircraft building techniques. I spent a year in Al Niblack's studio off Airport Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico learning and applying a host of engineering, construction, and design requirements that culminated in the aircraft debut at the 1986 EAA convention in Osh Kosh, WI.
WindDancer was the first and most beautifully styled Ikenga aircraft; a design/building project that was made possible via funding from a Canadian marketing firm. I've always loved the lines of sailplanes and incorporated these into my design, which placed the cockpit near the thrust line and the pilot in a semi-reclining position.

WindDancer never flew, however it laid the groundwork for all of my "less costly to construct and build" autogiros that followed. Conceived and built as a cross-country aircraft, the fully instrumented WindDancer hung under a Ken Brock heavy duty rotorhead and twenty-six foot McCutchen Skywheels composite rotor. Powered by a Mazda 120 horsepower aero-engine turning a Sterba 54/56 propeller, WindDancer had a composite enclosure and empennage. Its frame was 4130 chromoly tubular steel, 1.5 diameter x .058 wall, and its dry weight was four hundred and twenty pounds.

The lesson of Osh Kosh 86: WindDancer was too costly to manufacture for the low end kit market and, due to FAA regulations, impossible to sell as a fully built ship. Following Osh Kosh I switched gear, developing the radical Ikenga 530Z ship, which could be sold in the kitplane market for $10,000, only $3,000 more than the factory cost of the Mazda aero-engine.