Like other start-up success stories, this tale has
a familiar beginning.
“It all started with two guys, Abid Farooqui and
Larry Mednick,” begins the history lesson. The two
started flying trikes a decade ago after discovering
they preferred weight-shift control to conventional
aircraft where each had started.
They didn’t start out as partners.Farooqui wanted
to run a flight school and Mednick, who’d given up
freestyle jet skiing and street bike riding, just wanted
to fly trikes.
Giving instruction hour after hour to a variety of
students, Farooqui began to discover limitations in
the trikes he could buy for his school. Mednick was
finding something similar himself. They loved their
trikes, but they could envision a machine that would
better serve their interests.
Their learning experiences left each of them upside-
down hanging by their seatbelts after a mishap
that slowly but surely shaped the design that was
evolving in their minds.
Meanwhile, as their association grew, Mednick
chose to come on board with Tampabay Aerosport,
joining his earlier trike dealership to Farooqui’s. The
interest in a fresh trike design continued.
Farooqui proposed creating a trike from scratch.
Mednick, the hands-on guy, was unsure. He knew
how much was involved, especially if they wanted to
create the ultimate trike.
As the duo researched trikes, Farooqui discovered
the Apollo Delta Jet. “It was the most amazing trike
I’d ever seen,” remembers Farooqui. After contacting
the company that made it in Hungary, they were
stunned to find out it was discontinued because the
company had replaced it with something newer.
However, Apollo said it was possible to still make
the trike if there was a market for it. The company
did restart production. And the trike looked great. It
appeared Farooqui and Mednick had found a machine
they could truly call the ultimate.
But Delta Jet proved to have problems, so the duo
kept working on it. By the time they were satisfied,
they had made 62 changes to the original machine.
Even the manufacturer was impressed. It was clear
they needed to get more involved with the manufacturing.
Farooqui started a second shop that took the bare
frame Delta Jet chassis from Hungary and completed
the construction in the USA. His timing was good.
He became involved with the Light-Sport ASTM
standards committee, which finally resulted in Farooqui
certifying the Delta Jet as the third-ever
SLSA trike.
As good as the Delta Jet was, many Americans
didn’t fit the lean front seat; forget about the back
seat. It was time to take the next step.
Mednick traveled to Hungary and created the first
generation of the Monsoon trike that evolved into
the Revo. A long list of features was compiled from
trike flyers all over the world. Mednick tested the
new model, then known as the Fusion, for hundreds
of hours and loved almost everything about it. Almost
everything…
More changes resulted in the Monsoon, which was
certified SLSA in the USA and laid claim to being
the most popular model sold in ’08 in the United
States. By late ’07 there was actually a waiting list to
get a Monsoon. Farooqui and Mednick had a product
that trike pilots liked, but their manufacturer couldn’t
supply enough of them. This finalized the decision
to build a true 100% all-American-built trike. They
never wanted to be in that situation again.
About this time, Farooqui and Mednick met the
owner of Powrachute, the largest manufacturer of
powered parachutes with more than 1,500 aircraft
flying worldwide. Powrachute indicated strong interest
in the project and they could supply technologies
such as CNC-cut parts and chromoly welded frames.
The one thing that remained a problem was an all-
American wing for their all-American Revo trike design.
Like Powrachute, Kamron Blevins of North Wing
Design saw the promise of Farooqui and Mednick’s
new trike design. “He jumped at the chance to make
a topless wing specifically for the Revo,” says Mednick.
The challenge was to build a wing that could fly
at 100 mph and handle turbulence unlike anything
built before.
Farooqui and Mednick drew from the experience
of Bill Brooks, the revered designer of the Pegasus
Quik trike wing that was the first to reach 100 mph.
“Brooks explained the concepts that made his wing
unique,” said Farooqui. “We listened, and listened
hard, while Brooks explained almost every concept
of what we needed to do to make such a special
wing.”
North Wing’s Blevins had never built a high-speed
cruising trike wing. None of his earlier trike wings,
though known for their good handling, cruised faster
than 60 mph, reports Mednick.
After a few prototypes, Blevins started to incorporate
more of his own ideas into the new wing. Finally
both parties agreed on the configuration and the
flight-testing began. Tweaking and tuning the finished
prototype continued further into the fourth
quarter of ’09.
All specifications and flight characteristics demanded
for the Revo were met and the wing was
now ready for serial production.
On the trike carriage front, Farooqui reports,
“Powrachute did such an amazing job not only constructing,
but finishing the Revo prototype, that we
decided to let Powrachute completely build the Revo
carriages.” Powrachute added 1,500 square feet to
their 10,000-square-foot factory just to assemble the
Revo trike line.
The name Evolution Trikes derives from the long
evolution of aircraft that preceded the Revo. Each
trike before it was evolving into what is now called
the Revo, which is short for Revolutionary.
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