Cozy Aircraft Cozy Iv

Single Piston

The Cozy is a four-seat homebuilt aircraft that emerged in the 1980s as Nat Puffer's answer to Burt Rutan's two-seat Long-EZ. Retaining the distinctive canard configuration and composite construction of its predecessor, the Cozy stretched the fuselage to accommodate a second row of seats while preserving the efficient aerodynamics and cross-country capability that made Rutan's designs legendary among experimental builders. The aircraft is sold as plans and requires builders to fabricate components from fiberglass, foam, and epoxy, a process that typically takes several thousand hours but results in an airplane with remarkable fuel efficiency and cruise speeds around 180 knots on a modest 180-horsepower Lycoming engine. What sets the Cozy apart in the homebuilt world is its combination of true four-seat capacity with Long-EZ performance, a rare achievement in the experimental category where most fast aircraft sacrifice useful load for speed. The canard foreplane provides natural stall resistance (the forward wing stalls before the main wing, automatically pitching the nose down for recovery), making the design famously docile despite its unconventional appearance. The pusher propeller configuration keeps the engine noise behind the cabin and eliminates the need for a complex retractable gear, contributing to the type's reputation for low maintenance and high dispatch reliability among owner-builders. SkyMeter has tracked 70 flights across 25 airframes and 25 operators, with Joel Charest the largest observed operator.