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RV-15

Back Country, the RV Way

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Performance & Utility
Low weight, superb utility, short-field capabilities... total performance.
Back Country
Go to new places, do new things. And, take stuff with you and back home again.
It's Almost Here!
Sure, we've taken some time to get the RV Feel into the RV-15 but it'll be worth the wait. Kits coming soon!

July 2025 Update

So what’s been happening with the RV-15? In the last month, after getting its new wing fitted and flight tested, the engineering team has been hard at work, um, undoing a lot of their earlier work! In fact, the whole tail assembly—surfaces and the tail cone itself—had been modified several times to test different configurations. As a result, the structure wasn’t representative of the final airplane, nor was the control system. This iteration was to test what’s expected to be the final tail cone size and configuration before the RV-15 gets prepped for the cross-country trip to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and EAA AirVenture later this month.

Previously

June 2025: Work has been progressing steadily on the revolutionary RV-15 high-wing back-country aircraft from Van’s. Since its first reveal, the RV-15 has been significantly flown, evaluated, and re-engineered in search of excellence.

Late last week, the new wing was flown successfully on a warm Oregon afternoon. That flight, and several after that one, have been successful, with the new flap configuration as a key test point. The entire flap system, from the slot/hinge system to the cable-operated, floor-mounted handle, are being evaluated; so far, we’re really happy with the improvements. The airplane flies straight, stalls well, and performs exceptionally well in slow flight.

Still ahead: A slightly different tail configuration — still with a separate horizontal stabilizer and elevator — will come next, quickly followed by spin testing. Then it’s off to AirVenture in July.

Our Latest RV-15 Videos:

RV-15
Coming first. With the little wheel (it's all relative) mounted on the back.
RV-15A
Trike backcountry? Sure, at some point. Timeframe TBD.

Highlights

Wing on top, looks amazing, great handling, and some awesome features …

The aircraft you see on these pages is the RV-15 Engineering Test Prototype. It is not the final design. What we are learning from the prototype aircraft will be incorporated into the final kit design.

What we’ve shared publicly thus far:

  • High-wing
  • Backcountry capable
  • All-metal
  • Control sticks
  • Tailwheel aircraft planned first, tricycle to follow
  • An all-new gear and suspension system for the main and tail gear
  • Planned to carry two real people and lots of “stuff”
  • Yes, we hope to offer a float-plane option at some point

The design is meant to accommodate four-cylinder Lycoming engines from 180HP to 220HP. The engineering test prototype has a four-cylinder Lycoming IO-390 EXP-119 engine that outputs around 220HP and drives an 80-inch composite Hartzell Trailblazer propeller. While we have not yet determined the actual speeds or useful load for the final design, we have established design targets of 140kts and at least 900 pounds, with the room to load two full-size mountain bikes in the baggage area without having to completely disassemble them (just remove the front wheel like you would when mounting to a car or truck bike rack).

An airplane that will get you there reasonably quickly, get down and stopped and then back off the ground in short distances, while letting you carry all the stuff you need to answer the question, “Okay so we’re here, what are we gonna do?” Fish, bike, camp, hunt, whatever you can think of. You choose.

That’s what the RV-15 is about. We’re excited to share more with you soon.

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