Just Suppose…

Enzo Ferrari designs the car he always wanted to build. No compromises. His greatest work and the culmination of a lifetime of experience. He previews the design to his fans and HUNDREDS of them preorder the car. Sadly, before the car can be produced, he dies unexpectedly, prematurely. The car never gets made.

What would you pay to own such a car?

Now suppose this is not a rhetorical question. That in fact, the most renowned and beloved light aircraft designer of last 30 years, did indeed leave behind his greatest work. A sport airplane so superb that every pilot privileged to have flown it is passionate to own it. A Ferrari in the sky.

For more than three decades, Roy LoPresti was the reigning prince of light aircraft design. Roy was responsible for the design and manufacture of more successful airplanes than any designer in aviation history. Mooney, Grumman, Beech, Piper. Each company laying claim for a time to producing the works of his creative mind.

It's hard to know where Roy found his inspiration. It might have been flying sorties in Korea or designing planes for Grumman. Certainly, being part of the team which built the Lunar Lander and took us safely to the moon played some part. However, I prefer to believe it came from the same hand that inspired DiVinci and Michelangelo. Machine as art.

Every design Roy touched went faster, flew higher and felt better. He called his final work the "Fury". A technical masterpiece meant to incorporate the classic American lines of a WWII fighter with new and innovative technologies from his fertile mind. Technologies which may yet reinvigorate and revitalize the aircraft industry.

The LoPresti family owns the Fury design and the prototype. Roy left behind the plans, the tooling and even the bill of materials with every nut and bolt specified. More importantly Roy left behind a family of aviation engineers. Curt LoPresti heads the family business "Speed Merchants". They are known as the premier go-fast aviation company which "re-engineers" the designs of others. Speed Merchants is the place aviators go to when they need more you know what. (Speed!)

And who works there? Curt LoPresti, David LoPresti, Ann LoPresti, Bud LoPresti, Jim LoPresti and the Grande Dame who Shepard's the flock, Mom: Peggy LoPresti. A more knowledgeable and dedicated bunch of aviators would be very hard to find.

This team is now dedicated to building the Fury and bringing it to the hundreds of fans who say they want it. No small task. It takes about $25 million to build a factory and get a new design airborne. However, the LoPresti's have a great start. The first 15 million goes to designing and building the prototype . Roy did that. What remains is the physical facility, reams of paperwork and the final $10 Million. While investors are being courted , the team is busily preparing for manufacture. It seems that Roy left one more thing: A legacy that begs to be fulfilled and a team zealous to fulfill it. Stay Tuned.