Interview: 40 Years of RANS Aircraft

Veteran aircraft builder Randy Schlitter will concede there may be as many as 150 small aircraft manufacturers around the world, but not many are as prolific or creative as he has been in 50 years of running a company and 40 building airplanes. In this interview with AVweb's Paul Bertorelli, Randy explains how the company has evolved and guesses where the industry is going.

[@ScottVanArtsdalen]

I met Randy at OSH while I was building my S6-ES. Super nice guy. Always finds time to talk airplanes to anyone. By far my favorite airplane! It's found another life as a missionary aircraft in Mexico.

[@s-21project92]

My wife and I are building an S-21 and it’s amazing the precision in the skins. Everything lines up within a couple thousandths if not less. It’s a minimal tool build and has been a lot of fun. We’re first time builders so it’s taken quite a bit longer than usual, but we’re getting there. Hopefully we’ll be at OSH ‘24!!

[@jasonrwilkinson9216]

Great interview Paul, great to hear from Randy.

[@thomascharlton8545]

Wow, great interview Paul. Put a big smile on my face.

[@markthibault8579]

Good interview.

[@fred7852]

Thanks to Paul B. for interviewing Randy Schlitter of RANS aircraft. Randy is a gifted designer and his company is an important contributor to the growing home built movement (and now the bush plane movement). Full disclosure, I built, fly, and really enjoy my RANS S-20.

[@douglasschafer6372]

Randy is an unbelievably nice guy. My wife and I were attending a BMW Motorcycle rally in Texas and stopped in Hayes on the way back, with the express idea to look at the bicycles. Randy himself gave us a complete tour of the manufacturing facility, which at that time was primarily aircraft. This low buck guy got a high buck tour and loved every second and inch of it.

[@bigiron4018]

Similar story, stopped by as my girlfriend’s bike had a inner tube failure and stopped at the only bike shop for a long bit, and lo and behold got great customer service and a peek into the aircraft side. Super cool people, awesome facility.

[@bfryar22]

Awesome interview. Wow. Could watch these two talk for hours. 30 minutes came and went.

[@braincraven]

Great interview! And Thanks Paul for your lack of sugar coating 😀

[@user-zj3be2mh5j]

Cool interview. Learned some early Rans history. The history of bicycles to airplanes reminds me of those Dayton, Ohio brothers. 🤣

[@bobstroud9118]

I remember Randy from my time at OSH, ultralight area in the 80’s. Glad he’s still around. N.E.OH Bob.

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

Randy is such an interesting guy. I’ve built two RANS airplanes and everything about their operation is top notch!

[@dragon2knight]

I went to Osh '19 and met Randy just as he was eating some lunch (he's a vegetarian I believe) and he was kind enough to talk to a total newb on experimental aircraft for quite some time despite eating whilst doing it. His aircraft are unfortunately way out of my price range, but I still appreciated the time he took with me. Really nice guy!

[@jim5148]

I second Randy's closing remarks about Paul. Paul's the best in the business. Randy's not bad either.

[@kyqx]

Great questions, Paul!

[@kmg501]

That was a great conversation!

[@michaelguy7168]

I fly a S7 and love it. My next plane will be even more simple, maybe S4/5 with small 4 stroke. My guess is the next evolution will be back to ultralights, simple & less expensive.

[@joshuacofer]

I will never forget going through the RANS plant in Hays KS back in 2001 That was so cool. I would love to build out a plane some day.

[@arpeltier]

I’m building an S-21 and it’s a really fantastic kit. Bought it because it is such a flexible and capable plane. So interesting to see Randy describe similarities to things our company is going through as well, particularly with new technologies. Paul did a great interview as always! “Well, they still make sailboats!” 😂😂❤❤

[@jamesengland7461]

This was great as always, Paul!

[@mikeryan6277]

Met him at S&F one year truly a nice guy, Paul I wish you would have asked what he plans in the future considering the Mosaic changes.

[@grunta101]

Thankyou Gentlemen 😎

[@shanekennethjamesaustin3949]

What a great interview. Paul managed to get some informative content out of Randy. I am a personal fan of RANS aircraft, currently owning a S6-ES Coyote II Would love to get my hands on a S21 with all the options, one can only wish. Thanks Paul & Randy.

[@williamharn9048]

Congrats!!

[@rafaelsierra8733]

Wonderful interview. "Rag and Tube" ? 😊

[@DanFrederiksen]

Smart to know that 3d printing is the future although it needs to get a lot better and the makers of the machines have to realize that cost matters. So far they are way to fond of status quo. There will come a time when vehicle designs can only be manufactured by '3d printing'. Which I know from UFOs. It's also true that electric only really works with a very efficient plane so why not use that realization and see that all planes should of course be intelligently designed like gliders instead of dim tractors of the sky. It's not just electric or gliders where efficiency is smart. It's just with a murican engine you don't notice it's a flying anchor. Optimization is king. Similarly with a miter machine, LSAs can be very simple products, if you optimize the production it can be dirt cheap to make a plane, as it should be and that's a good way to whittle down the 120 producers to 5 and increase the market dramatically. Maybe get rid of some of that WW2 metal that GA is still suffering gladly. An LSA can be made with maybe 5k$ worth of brand name carbon fiber. And you can make the entire fuselage in a single mold to cut down on labor. So why do they cost 200k or 400 in the case of Elixir. Apparently a carbon cub has crossed 400k too. Which is a WW1 aircraft. Fabric over metal frame. The level of non thinking is staggering. A glider body shape lends itself to shell rigidity, meaning very simple production. You can get a complex shape enclosed carbon fiber kayak retail for 2k$. Some of them have multiple different materials sandwiched and core material. How can they make very awkward shapes cheap and planes makers making easy shapes are like popes. We couldn't possibly make this cheaper than 400k. It's a small market. If you had to make a billion dollar car factory, sure but this is a winged canoe and a compound bow we are talking about. And a briggs and stratton. And a commodore 64 if you want to get technical. And a side note on clean designs, couldn't a light plane do without flaps. Is the difference more than a quarter of a second of braking. Is it really worth the complexity.

[@BlueBaron3339]

Damn, *a 30-minute video with just talking?* I thought...oh well...I'll click play. But it's a complete lie. Five minutes later, 30 minutes had passed 😂 Well done, gentlemen!

[@tinolino58]

I want a 14!

[@darrel888]

🙋 "PromoSM"

[@petefinnegan3873]

shit service sent rubbish part .....never deal with them again.