HARRISON HC-1108 « SKYBLAZER » / « TRACER »
This most elegant sports aircraft based on a Rutan Solitaire fuselage made a sensation at Oshkosh!

Builder:Charles "Chuck" Dean Harrison

Type:  single-seat homebuilt sport airplane

Powerplant: 1 x 118 hp Lycoming O-235 engine

Significant date: 1991

The Skyblazer was built and designed by Charles "Chuck" Dean Harrison in 1990, with help from aerospace design engineer Robert Jones. It was constructed from an old Rutan Solitaire fuselage that was going to the dump, fitting custom-designed wired foam surfaces and a new, beefed up cowl with a Lycoming engine. The whole construction cost less than $8,000, which was quite remarkable.

The elegant Skyblazer would get to 190-200 mph and cruise at 175-180 mph on only 6 gals per hour fuel burn. It was registered as the HC-1108 in 1990 in Salinas, California, and attended the EAA's Oshkosh '91 and made quite a sensation there, granting it the cover story of the January 1992 issue of Sport Aviation.

After a few years, the aircraft reappeared, rebuilt with a strengthened fuselage and new canopy as the Harrison Tracer. In this new guise, it retained its previous registration N890C but was re-registered in 2002 in Deer Island, Oregon. It then appeared at the Oshkosh '03 annual meet. Its current whereabout are not known.

Chuck Harrison once owned and operated Composites Unlimited, which manufactured tooling and composite parts for many aircraft companies. He then became co-owner of the Composites Universal Group and was deeply involved in programs such as the ViperJet, Giles 200 or MX-2.


Population: 1 [N890C] (c/n 001 > c/n 01)

Specifications: unknown

Crew/passengers: 1

Main source:

In its new guise the Skyblazer became known as the Tracer.