Cessna 400 Corvalis, High Performance Get-Away-Plane.
By Norm Goyer
The Cessna Corvalis has a 310 hp dual turbo six cylinder engine.
We were approaching the oil rigs and the small islands off the coast of California north of Los Angeles when I started to put the low-wing retractable composite aircraft into a rather tight turn when my passenger said, “Watch your airspeed. This airplane will accelerate rapidly, when you lower the nose in a bank.” My passenger, owner/designer of the plane, Lance Neibauer, was accompanying me while I flew the new Lancair IV homebuilt for an article in Sport Pilot. We had just taken off from the company’s digs in Santa Paula, California. This flight occurred about 20 years ago, way before the firm moved lock stock and retracts to Bend, Oregon.
This is a Cessna 400 Corvalis which is similar to the one alleged to have been stolen by the Barefoot Bandit.
I have always been impressed with the way Lancairs handled, on the ground and in the air, and I have flown them all including the barn-burning turboprop IV, now that is a piece of machinery. Why are we discussing Lancairs? Because the Cessna 400 Corvalis is a grandchild of the same Lancair IV I flew many years ago with Lance over the Pacific ocean. In fact, it is very closely related to the fixed gear Lancair ES homebuilt kit aircraft. Then I imagine the Barefoot Bandit, an inexperienced pilot, with only two short solo flights in an even more high performance aircraft and I have my doubts, maybe the kid is a genius as his mother claims or a damn prevaricator like many of us believe.
The Cessna 400 started as the Columbia 300 which was itself derived from the Lancair ES kit aircraft. The Corvalis (named in honor of Corvallis, Oregon, but spelled differently) is powered by a turbocharged Continental TSIO-550-C engine producing 310 horsepower at 2600 rpm. The Corvalis features a Garmin G1000 glass cockpit. The Cessna 350 also used the same Garmin Glass Cockpit. The Cessna 400’s Continental TSIO-550-C engine can be operated lean of peak. At 11,000, 50 °F rich of peak turbine inlet temperature, maximum cruise yielded 199 knots true air speed and 24.7 US gallons per hour fuel flow. At the same operating settings and 50-75 °F lean of peak the 400 was measured at 189 knots TAS and 17.8 US gal/h, a great savings of fuel but very little airspeed loss.
The Columbia 400 has been sold with E-Vade, an optional ice protection system, which was not certified for flight into known icing. The system consists of heat-conducting graphite foil panels on the wing and tail leading edges. These panel areas are heated by 70 volt 100 amp electrical power delivered from a additional alternator. The system is controlled by a single switch. Due to its high performance the 400 features optional speed brakes mounted on the wing’s top surfaces. The 400 nose wheel is non-steerable; the pilot maintains directional control while taxiing by using differential braking on the main wheels.
Cessna originally sold the Corvalis as the Cessna 400, the aircraft was given the marketing name Corvalis TT for twin turbocharged by Cessna on January 14, 2009. The name is a derivation of the town of Corvallis, Oregon which is west of the Bend, Oregon location of the Cessna plant which originally built the aircraft. Cessna then closed the Bend facility and relocated production to Independence, Kansas in 2009. Production was resumed in October, 2009, at an old Cessna paint facility. The composite construction facility was moved to Mexico In April 2009.
The Cessna 400 is the fastest FAA-certified fixed-gear, single-engined piston aircraft in production today.
Specifications:
- Capacity: I pilot, 3 passengers
- Length: 25 ft 2 in
- Wingspan: 36 ft 1 in
- Height: 9 ft 0 in
- Wing area: 141 ft²
- Empty weight: 2,500 lb
- Max takeoff weight: 3,600 lb
- Power plant: Teledyne Continental TSIO-550-C flat-6 engine, 310 hp
Performance
- Maximum speed: 235 knots (270 mph,)
- Cruise speed: 235 knots (270 mph,) at 25,000 ft
- Range: 1,107 nm (1,274 mi,)
- Service ceiling: 25,000 ft
- Rate of climb: 1,500 ft/min or greater, below 16,000 ft
- Wing loading: 25.5 lb/ft²