A Short-Lived Experiment
The Specter II emerged during the 1990s homebuilt aircraft boom as James D. Gessford's ambitious attempt to create a stall-resistant kit aircraft for amateur constructors. Gessford incorporated Specter Aircraft, Inc. on July 23, 1997, with the sole purpose of developing and marketing this unconventional canard design. The company's entire existence revolved around this single aircraft project, operating from Bancroft, Idaho for just over two and a half years before administrative revocation on February 17, 2000.
Innovative Design Approach
The Specter II featured several distinctive characteristics that set it apart from conventional homebuilt aircraft. Its canard configuration placed the horizontal stabilizer ahead of the main wing, theoretically providing inherent stall resistance. The aircraft employed a cantilever high-wing design with an unusual pusher propeller arrangement, powered by a Subaru EA82 four-cylinder automotive conversion engine producing 118 horsepower.
Construction relied heavily on composite materials, with wing-tip rudders replacing conventional tail surfaces. The narrow 22-inch cabin accommodated pilot and passenger in tandem seating, with the pilot enjoying panoramic visibility through a bubble canopy while the passenger was limited to side windows. Fixed tricycle landing gear simplified ground operations, though the nosewheel was designed to retract.
Technical Specifications
Measuring 16 feet 6 inches in length with a 34-foot wingspan, the Specter II achieved a relatively high aspect ratio of 7.9:1 across its 147 square feet of wing area. Empty weight totaled 1,000 pounds, with a maximum gross weight of 1,600 pounds, providing a useful load of 600 pounds. With 23 gallons of fuel capacity, the aircraft could carry 462 pounds of payload with full tanks.
Performance figures showed promise for its intended role, with a cruise speed of 140 mph and a remarkably low stall speed of just 54 mph. Wing loading calculated to 10.9 pounds per square foot, contributing to its gentle handling characteristics. The three-bladed wooden fixed-pitch propeller was specifically designed for the pusher configuration.
The Subaru Powerplant
The choice of Subaru EA82 automotive conversion reflected the experimental aircraft community's ongoing search for reliable, affordable alternatives to traditional aircraft engines. This inline four-cylinder, air-cooled engine represented a common conversion in the 1990s experimental scene, offering dependable power in the 90-125 horsepower range at significantly lower cost than certified aircraft engines.
Limited Production Reality
Despite Gessford's aspirations to market the design as a kit aircraft with an estimated 850-hour build time, commercial success never materialized. Only the single prototype was ever completed, coinciding with the company's introduction of the aircraft in 1997. By 1998, Specter Aircraft reported their prototype was flying, but no customers committed to building additional examples.
Federal Aviation Administration records confirmed the aircraft's experimental registration, but this expired in 2013. As of April 2015, while one example remained on FAA records, it had been inactive for two years and was considered unlikely to be operational.
A Forgotten Chapter
The Specter II represents the challenges facing small aircraft manufacturers attempting to break into the competitive homebuilt market. Despite innovative design features and apparent flight-testing success, the aircraft failed to generate sufficient market interest to sustain production. The company's brief operational period highlighted the financial realities of aircraft development, even in the less-regulated experimental category.
Today, the Specter II exists primarily as a footnote in 1990s experimental aviation history. No examples are known to remain airworthy, and none have found their way into aviation museums. The aircraft's ICAO type designation SPC2 serves as perhaps the most enduring legacy of Gessford's ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful venture into aircraft manufacturing.
The Specter II story illustrates the thin line between aviation innovation and commercial viability, representing countless similar projects that emerged from garage workshops and small companies during the homebuilt aircraft movement's expansion, only to disappear when market realities overtook engineering optimism.