John Redman of Viper Aviation is a former Air Force mechanic Crew Chief who worked on F-15 and F-117 fighter jets. Now, he'll build you your own experimental Rans S20 or Rans S21 plane. Listen in as he tells his story as one of the best USAF mechanics in history, and how he helps those wanting to build their own Rans S20 or S21 aircraft.

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Watch the video version of this podcast here.

Get in touch with John Redman right here via the Viper Aviation website.

Full Transcript - Struck Podcast EP13 with John Redman of Viper Aviation

https://youtu.be/7p0eYhNzE_I

Dan: Alright. So we have an awesome guest today. John Redmond, a real aviation lifer is joining us on the show today. I'm having already recorded our conversation with John Allen. What were your, some of your takeaways?

Allen Hall: Well, John's been in aviation forever and he's one of those guys you meet Wehrli that has been an aircraft mechanic in the air force.

And then once coming out of the air force has been in aviation ever since. And so he knows the ins and outs of pretty much everything. Aircraft related. It's hard to find those people anymore because they're just so [00:01:00] rare. But when you do run across them, it's always a really good, interesting conversation.

Dan: Yeah. So John started his career off, working on, uh, in the air force, worked on F sixteens and F one 17. So he knows those, those two jets, like the back of his hand. And as also clearly, which he didn't really go into depth, uh, on he's worked on some of the, is sort of like. Secret aircraft too, which is pretty cool.

So we'll just have to imagine. Uh, but he mentioned that a little bit about how he was part of some kind of elite teams there. Um, and then he's also been the, uh, after his time in the military, uh, was in the model jet engine business, which is also crazy. So these models, um, with. Really powerful jet engines.

Let me think. What do you say? 130, 2000 RPMs and some of these jet turbines?

Allen Hall: Yeah. That's the full RPM speed and 125 pounds of thrust per engine. That's all ton of thrust for such a little device.

Dan: Amazing. Yeah, pretty intense. And then he, [00:02:00] uh, he and his son, uh, fly drones for the military now as contractors and.

There's some really interesting stuff there. A lot of which he also doesn't doesn't talk about, but he really gave us a really cool in depth, uh, into an all of his career. And so now he's, uh, has a new company, Viper aviation. Uh, you can visit them at Viper aviation, usa.com or on Facebook. At Viper aviation and a he's helping people build their own experimental aircraft.

So tell me, Allen, a little bit about the experimental aircraft industry. Well, the light

Allen Hall: sport aircraft industry is probably 15. Maybe, maybe not that old, but it's relative, relatively new in aviation world. And it allows you to build your own airplane. You have to build 51% of it. So a lot of it's, uh, kits that are.

Halfway built roughly. And then, uh, you end up building the rest of yourself and it becomes your own personal little airplane. It is very popular because it is an inexpensive way to get into aviation,