i did a kav several years back, enjoyed it greatly 'till i sold it - going bigger then. so, i copied the plans at 135%, resulting in a 75" wingspan and an MAC of about 14". this yields a wing area about 1048 sq. in. i was thinking a 3W28 or something to fit in the relatively narrow (by current design standard) front end. with its rear carb, i thought it could be wedged in.

a few issues have to be solved. with an enlarged plan, you of course have to make your own fiberglass cowl. in addition, unique to this model, is the canopy fit to the front of the wing, right at the wing mount. of course, no canopy is ready made for the enlarged version, and one would have to be moulded or found that would fit. an alternative might be to make a wing mounting plate, and go with a profile piece for the center of the wing. each rib is a different size on the tapered wing, but each is shown on the plan. however, you could use templates at each end of a rib pack, and sand a tapered rib set. you could also build in the all important washout that mccullough used. or, for that matter, a guy could cut a foam wing that would duplicate all that. the nosewheel would have to be mounted to the back side of F1, and even then may not clear a rear carb setup, though i think that could be worked out. i suppose a guy could go tailwheel, but in my opinion if you make too many changes to a design, you end up not building that design at all.

anyway, that's as far as i have thought it out. i go back to the project from time to time because that kavalier is just a sweet little airplane..