Innovator aircraft crash claims its designer
Richard Hogan, 63, was ‘pursuing a dream’
Richard Hogan, the 63-year-old Commuter Craft founder, died March 23 in an aircraft accident in northern Georgia. He was flying the company’s two-person Innovator kitplane, the Gordon Gazette reported.
The FAA confirmed the fatality in the crash near Calhoun, not far from the manufacturer’s Cartersville headquarters. A March 25 preliminary accident and incident notice indicated the low-wing experimental aircraft “crashed in a field due to unknown circumstances.”
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution article recently profiled Hogan, who left an engineering services job when he was in his mid-50s to “go all-in” manufacturing the aircraft. Hogan told the newspaper his design began to jell when he was in high school and he went on to manufacture several radio-controlled models of the innovative aircraft.
The aircraft manufacturing facility employed “about a dozen people,” and Hogan planned to sell the Innovator as a builder-assist model with prices ranging from about $150,000 to $210,000, depending on how the airplane was outfitted, the article noted. The company’s website indicated 59 reservations for the airplane. The hope was that airframes would be built at an 82,000-square-foot factory “with a builder support specialist” supervising construction. The website says that prepackaged engine and instrument systems would plug-and-play, and the aircraft could be completed in three months or less.
Aviation photographer John Slemp, a friend of Hogan’s, had followed the company’s engineering and design progress for six years and was on site during what he anticipated to be another routine test flight.
“He was a typical Texan in many ways,” Slemp recalled. “Richard was a guy pursuing a dream and not everybody gets that chance.” The photographer said Hogan would often begin his work day “at 4 a.m. and go to bed at midnight” after tweaking the aircraft’s design or working on other business plans.
Slemp said he expected Hogan to perform a normal climbout at Tom B. David Airport as he had witnessed countless times before. He was surprised when Hogan initiated a left turn and radioed that he was coming in for a landing shortly before the aircraft “disappeared behind a stand of trees. It was over very quick,” said a still-shaken Slemp.
The Innovator had an expected 194-mph cruise speed, a maximum range of 960 miles, and a minimum speed of 58 mph, and was listed on the company’s website as “stall/spin resistant.” When the prototype first flew four years ago, Slemp said "it flew pretty darn well."
Since then the aircraft was lengthened about three feet to add more storage; gull-wing doors replaced a tip-up canopy; the horizontal stabilizer was moved lower on the twin booms for more control authority; and a canard was lengthened, he noted. The redesigned Innovator flew “two weeks ago with a test pilot,” Slemp added. “He was absolutely committed to getting this thing in the air and making a viable company out of it. I take a lot of inspiration and comfort from that.”
The company had recently announced a winner for its paint scheme design contest, which encouraged creativity and offered cash prizes for youth and adults. The burgundy-and-gold winning design by Californian Jenessa Link earned her $500.
Hogan previously told AOPA that the airplane's mission was to bring new people into aviation. He explained how the design was scalable and anticipated the company could eventually build versions with up to six seats, or larger—or make the aircraft smaller and lighter to qualify as a light sport aircraft. “I’ve got a lot of ambitions for my little baby,” Hogan said at the time.
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