The first canard aircraft designed and built by Roger Junqua was the one-off Volucelle RJ02, first flown by the designer's son Jean-Claude in 1985. This, the first modern French canard, was used as a development vehicle to refine the final Ibis design. The Ibis first flew in 1991 and retains much in common with the Volucelle both in general layout and in some detail, though it has a more powerful Volkswagen engine. It is designed to be homebuilt from plans, not from a kit; its structure is entirely constructed from spruce or similar wood, covered with birch and Gaboonmahoganyplywood. The Ibis is a single engine pusher canard, with swept mainplanes carrying swept endplate fins and rudders. These rear wings have constant chord, so all the plywood ribs are identical for ease of construction, and are built around a constant cross sectionbox spar. They are then filled with styrodur foam before the plywood skin is applied. There is no dihedral or washout. Full spanflaperons provide roll control. The vertical surfaces are made in a similar way and extend both above and below the wing, incorporating rudders for yaw control. The canard fore wing is again similarly made but is unswept; it has constant chord with rounded tips and has no dihedral or washout. It carries slottedelevators for pitch control. The fuselage of the Ibis is built around four wooden longerons and plywood covered, with single curvature sides and bottom. Pilot and passenger are seated in tandem under a long, single-piece, Junqua-supplied canopy, with the rear seat at the leading edge root of the mainplane; there is storage space behind the passenger's seat. The pusher engine is close to the trailing edge, driving a two blade propeller. A variety of ungeared flat four engines in the 45-60 kW can be used; Ibis have flown with Volkswagen 1835 and 1870 cc, Limbach L2000 and Jabiru 2200 motors. The Ibis has a fixed tricycle undercarriage with mainwheels, which may be spatted, mounted from the fuselage on laminated plywood legs. The nosewheel has a rocker type rubber shock absorber and is steerable via the rudder pedals.
Operational history
Eleven Ibis had been built and flown by 2012, eight in France and one each in the Netherlands, Slovenia and the USA. 41 others remain under construction worldwide, six of which appear on the French civil aircraft register.
