Manta's Foxbat is the original rigid-wing trike. A few months ago here, I revealed what I believe will be a new trend among trike ultralights: the rigid-wing trike. This machine will take the increasingly popular trike concept into the 21st century by using a composite wing of very high aspect ratio. Such a wing brings increased performance and promises dramatically better handling than can be found on the so-called flex-wing trikes that presently do the heavy lifting on trikes. Only time will tell if my prediction is right. Yet years-perhaps decades before these rigid wings become common, an Oakland, California, company produced a rigid wing trike of its own. Foxbat was the name. That it did not achieve great market success is no condemnation of the trike or its then-unorthodox wing. In fact, Pterodactyl, which did achieve good sales, used this identical wing as its starting point for the company's much more popular line of ultralights. The earliest *'Dacs had many similarities with the Foxbat and only later added a canard for greater aerodynamic authority. Eventually, building wings for Pterodactyls brought Manta Products back to its roots as a supplier rather than airframe builder. But prior to shifting to powered ultralights, Manta sold many of its Fledgling wings (without the trike) to hang glider pilots who yearned for higher performance than flex-wing hang gliders were getting at that time. The final state of the art in Fledgling development was the Fledge III. In the late *'70s, the Fledgling swept the U.S. Hang Gliding Nationals competition. This had a chilling effect on the flex-wing market, and such control-surface wings were subsequently relegated to a new class (II) that tried to level the competition playing field. Ironically, flex wings finally achieved the same or better performance as the Fledgling, though current rigid-wing models like the ATOS and Ghostbuster continue to stretch the performance envelope. America First Though Europeans took over trike development in the 1980s, America had a good lead once upon a time. Of the many comments I've received since the May KITPLANES story on rigid wings for trikes, one was from Robert Crowell of Boone, North Carolina. He enjoyed the story but said, "Hey, rigid wings on trikes have been around a long time. You should see my Manta Foxbat." I got excited. I know the Foxbat and always regarded it as an interesting design. Crowell's proof is displayed in photos showing his 15-year old Foxbat, right down to the original Cuyuna 430 engine (made famous by Jack McCornack's use of the powerplant on his Pterodactyl). It is lifted by a Manta 160 Fledge III wire-braced wing. "It's a legal ultralight at 240 pounds," Crowell says, indicating he's also in compliance with all the other definitions of Part 103 regulations. He says of the Fledgling III wing, "I believe it was stressed for +/-7 G as a hang glider, so +/-4 G as a trike is a sufficient [limit] I think." Crowell has since added a kingpost strobe light and his own design lightweight cloth and foam pod. Even with a large Lexan windshield, he says the fairing weighs only 4 pounds. Like most trikes, the Foxbat folds and fits well in the back of Crowell's truck. Setup time from transport condition to flying, he reports, is about an hour. Foxbat was a well built trike, assembled by Manta Products, which was a successful machine shop operation for years. The company's success at wing building was also significant. Manta made and sold many flex-wing hang gliders. In fact, my own first hang glider was a Manta kit that some friends and I bought in 1972. Add the machine shop capabilities to abilities with wings and airframes*...and the trike seems a natural outcome. To my knowledge, Manta never experimented with a flex-wing trike. With the company's rigid wing lighting fires in the contest circuit, there was no need. This advanced thinking may have been the Foxbat's downfall during those early years of ultralight aircraft and trikes in particular; it was simply too far ahead of its time. Old Timer Keeps on Flying Crowell says his rigid wing is little different from the 1970s hang glider sensation. It may have some additional sleeving in the control bar downtubes that carry compression loads (they increase with the weight of the trike chassis). "Actually you could remove the wing, hook into it with a hang gliding harness, and fly it as a hang glider without any modification," marvels Crowell as he describes his flying machine. My own Cosmos Samba also offers such a dual personality, and such developments have become increasingly common as hang gliding and light powered trikes merge. The Flegling wing was interesting to handle as a hang glider. To achieve static balance, you had to hold the nose down 30*deg* or more. In the air, the wing was light in pitch, requiring only small movements of your body fore and aft to change speeds readily. This may sound pitch neutral but in fact the wing didn't want to fly extremely fast and was highly stable when aerodynamically loaded. Control was effected by weight shift in pitch, but drag rudders did turning duty. On slow aircraft like the Fledgling, tip drag rudders are highly effective. As a bonus, they are also simple to assemble and disassemble for transport. Instead of a control bar base tube on the wing, Manta used a cable stretched tautly from one control bar downtube leg to the other.*** On this heavy cable slid two controllers. You pulled toward the center with one or both and the respective surface deployed. Muscular pressure was surprisingly modest. The plus of using them in unison as drag-only devices meant the longer gliding wing could accommodate small landings areas easily-a good quality for a soaring glider that often lands off field. What's Old Is New Again While future development for rigid-wing trike wings remains an unknown, Robert Crowell and a few other Foxbat owners are plying the skies under their well-proven Fledgling wings. Look closely at the photos of Robert in his Foxbat (his has a forward support tube instead of a wire) and you'll see that his prop is stopped. This is a soaring machine flown by a soaring pilot. The smile goes with the territory.