VH-OOU Rutan 74 Defiant owned by Timely Addition Pty Ltd, at the Sport Aircraft Builders Club (SABC) Annual Fly-In, Serpentine Airfield, Western Australia – 23 October 2022. Built in 1988, MSN Q35, ex VH-OOI. The Rutan Defiant was designed by Burt Rutan as a four-seat aircraft with twin engines in a push-pull configuration and first flown in 1978. It was intended to be a proof-of-concept aircraft for a safe light twin design, requiring minimal pilot action in case of engine failure, with good single engine performance. In 1979, Rutan planned to certify the aircraft for production, but lacking financing, it was instead modified for homebuilt construction as the Model 74, with the first kitplane version flying in 1983. 176 sets of plans were purchased before Rutan stopped selling plans in 1985. Built using fiberglass layup over styrofoam core shapes, similar to the Rutan VariEze. Nose gear is retractable, the main gear is fixed, there are no flaps, has an offset, forward-mounted rudder and it has fixed-pitch, non-feathering props. VH-OOI was registered in 1988 (reregistered VH-OOU in 2007) as the only Defiant in Australia until 2006, when another was built (VH-DFY). VH-OOU is based at Bunbury Airport. Photo © David Eyre.