Conventional wisdom says that an airplane is a collection of compromises – a premise seemingly borne out in practice. Bigger wings mean slower speeds, but more lift. Smaller engines mean less performance, but better economy. Roomier cockpits mean lower fuel mileage and reduced cross-country range. Everybody knows these things. But what if, applying the Firesign Theater’s comedic dictum, “Everything you know is wrong,” someone shook those bits of conventional wisdom and sorted out a new way of looking at an airplane? It’s been done before. Burt Rutan’s wildly creative approach to seeing past convention gave us the Varieze, Catbird, Boomerang, Proteus, Voyager, and Spaceship One, among others. Because such creations don’t follow the usual scientific method of changing one variable at a time, but seem to take multiple detours around “normal” all at once, the results take us by surprise. John McGinnis, of Kalispell, Montana, seems to delight in taking uncomfortable turns around convention. His presentation at the fourth annual …