Most ultralight aircraft (officially: “ultralight vehicles”) are rather simple constructions. They must be to stay within the tight constraints of a 254-pound maximum empty weight.*
That’s not a negative comment about them. Actually, it’s the opposite.
To build a flying airplane that weighs less than the engine alone on a Light-Sport Aircraft, a designer has to be unusually clever.
All aircraft are constrained in weight by the laws of physics. Ultralights are further constrained by regulation.
A key way to keep an aircraft light is to keep it simple. Indeed most 103 ultralights are quite basic. However, as years passed some engineers have found intriguing solutions. I recently wrote about the composite Swan. Why not one using extensive carbon fiber?
Carbon Corsair
German developer Jörg Hollmann took a different approach, one that consumed a few years of effort.
He wanted an aircraft that resembled the famous World War II F4U Corsair fighter.
Search Results for : Four stroke and ultralight
Not finding exactly what you expected? Try our advanced search option.
Select a manufacturer to go straight to all our content about that manufacturer.
Select an aircraft model to go straight to all our content about that model.
One More Part 103 Ultralight Aircraft: UltraCruiser by Hummel Aviation
In April, lots of readers were clearly pleased with the “Vintage Ultralights” series. Thanks to our cooperation with Videoman Dave and his popular YouTube channel, we were able to present ten well-proven aircraft that could be purchased for well under $10,000 …assuming you could find one that met your needs and passed a careful inspection.
Bargains may not be the easiest aircraft to find and buy yet the effort can pay off with a flying machine allowed by your budget and which can bring a smile to your face. That seems worth the search.
However, our 10-aircraft review was not exhaustive. Even more choices are available! Some very modestly priced aircraft — Legal Eagle is one of several (yes, several!) possibilities — are available as a new aircraft purchases for a fairly small amount of money. Another is Hummel Aviation’s UltraCruiser (see lots of links below).
Ultralight April 2020 — Tenth in the Vintage Series: Team Mini-Max
The grand finale to this series on Vintage Ultralights during the month of April 2020 focuses on an airplane that can be very inexpensive if bought used. However, even new models are quite the bargain brand new — $6,195 for a complete Mini-Max kit, not including engine, instruments, or paint — from Team Mini-Max LLC. The big difference is you must build a new one. For some this may be pure delight. Others want to fly sooner or don’t care to tackle the building effort.
As alert readers may have noticed, Mini-Max shares something with the third in this series, Fisher’s Koala. That also-mostly-wood aircraft was designed by Mike Fisher and Wayne Ison. The last man was the principal of Team Aircraft in Tennessee. Ison passed away in August of 2014 at the age of 90.
Wayne had a gentle yet determined way about him that I recall well.
Ultralight April 2020 — Fifth in the Vintage Series: Kolb Firestar
Amazingly enough, here in 2020, we have noticeably returned to our roots in very light aircraft. Almost 40 years after Mike Sacrey and his team at FAA created the still-incredible Part 103, one leading brand from those days is not only still in business and thriving, but they are largely building similar aircraft to four decades back.
The man you saw on the lead photo is the famed Dick Rahill, a one-man flying machine flying his machine at Sun ‘n Fun more capably than any robot. Over and over, Dick would blast off in the bright yellow Firestar that seemed attached to him. He’d make one quick pattern from the turf runway in Paradise City at Sun ‘n Fun only to land, jump right back in the takeoff line, and repeat. Launch, circle, land, repeat… over and over. It seemed like every other airplane taking off was Dick and his FireStar.
Ultralight April 2020 — Fourth in the Vintage Series: Hiperlight SNS 8 Biplane
As we continue with this fourth in a series of ten about very affordable light aircraft from earlier times, we stress again that all the aircraft presented in this series still have some essential qualities that warranted their inclusion.
First, these are all aircraft with which Videoman Dave and I are personally familiar. I have flown all but one on the list and I believe Dave has flown all of them. So, we come to the series with real experiences in these flying machines. It has been a while for many of them, but assuming maintenance is good (see the important message at the end), this can be reasonable for many pilots to consider. However, as with any used aircraft, the buyer must be aware. Neither Dave nor I can comment on any one particular aircraft.
Second, and with the maintenance message firmly planted in your mind, all the models in this Vintage Ultralight series still have parts available from current-day producers.
Full-2019 Market Share Report for Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot Kit Aircraft
We have a new year upon us. With our new reporting capabilities for LSA and SP kit market shares, we can now quickly report results from 2019.
A huge thanks to our supreme “datastician,” Steve Beste for making such swift and accurate reporting possible. I assure you that I’ve looked high and low for every year LSA have existed to find no comparable information.
As always, be advised that our data comes from FAA’s aircraft registration database. That means it is impartial — hopefully meaning reliable and dependable — but it also means some massaging of the information is needed to be completely accurate. (See this article for more detail on the effort involved; it is not trivial.) Steve’s valuable ability to manipulate database resources combines with his knowledge of light aircraft to make an unbeatable combination.
As much as any data allows — and as the saying goes… “you can take this info to the bank.” It’s solid!
Badland Aircraft — Kitfox Lite, A True Part 103 Ultralight Aircraft, Returns to the Market
Once we had Avid Flyer. It begat Kitfox, which begat many models before returning to the starting point by creating a Part 103 ultralight vehicle* called Kitfox Lite …what else? At that time Kitfox was owned by its principal, Dan Denney.
A good marketer Denney’s Kitfox once employed a whole staff of sales people following up on loads of leads that the then-new design was generating. Even now, decades later, Kitfox, doing business as Fox Air, is building one of the most successful kit-plane designs in aviation history. (For the facts and market position of Kitfox visit our Tableau Public page of LSA and SP kit statistics.)
While the Dan Denney version of Kitfox Inc., addressed strong demand, they also began working to widen the market they served. Kitfox had found success as a two seater in various configurations but did a market exist for a single seater?
Eurofly Minifox — Light, Low-Cost, Single-Place Aircraft …Oh, and Fun!
“I knew we had all the pictures we needed but I was having a blast and just wanted to keep flying Minifox,” wrote British aviation writer, Dave Unwin. In this article we welcome Dave back to give his description of a fun, highly affordable Part 103-compliant ultralight.
Minifox by Eurofly is a lot of pure flying fun, and it was just joyful to spend an agreeable afternoon on a well-tended grass strip shooting a series of touch ‘n’ goes in an open-cockpit single-seater.
Upon spotting Minifox at a show I was instantly intrigued and inquired with Dave Broom of Airplay, the UK agent for Eurofly of Italy. Dave told me that a Minifox kit could be completed for less than £19.000 or about $25,000. That’s not a lot of money for a brand-new flying machine, and it occurred to me that such a price could help reverse the current trend of making aviation ever-more expensive.
Legal Eagle Is An Exceptionally Low-Cost Ultralight Aircraft for Kit Builders
Perhaps not every pilot needs for aircraft to be affordable but a great many do. Plus, does not every pilot — every customer — appreciate a bargain?
In this article, I am writing about one of most affordable aircraft you can build. Legal Eagle is not available either fully built or in a full kit.
A genuine, qualifying Part 103 ultralight vehicle, Legal Eagle ultralight weighs only 244 pounds. The three axis aircraft is designed around the four stroke half VW engine producing 30 horsepower, more than enough power for most applications.
A slightly enlarged version of the original, the Legal Eagle XL Ultralight can handle a 275 pound pilot yet has an empty weight of just 246 pounds …so it also makes the grade as an ultralight.
The original Legal Eagle limited the pilot weight to 225 pounds. Physically bigger pilots also needed a wider, taller seat plus more wing area and span was needed to carry the added pilot weight.
World Ultralight Fly-In 2016; Hundreds Will Fly
A Thousand Ultralight Pilots Sharing the Sky” …is the tagline used by the Dayton Ultralights group again sponsoring the World Ultralight Fly-In. However, what it is NOT is a fly-IN. The truth is that “sub-87” aircraft, as the segment is often called, cannot span the immense distances of an entire globe to fly “in” to one location. So organizers got creative. Sub-87 refers to a LSA regulation reference to aircraft that fly less than 87 knots or 100 mph.
WUFI’16 is, however, the second annual event, an innovative way to get hundreds, perhaps even more than a thousand pilots to all go airborne on the same day and to log that effort on a map that shows the world where on Earth ultralights enjoy the skies. The organizers put only a few restrictions on what kind of aircraft can be used. The event is more one of virtual camaraderie than a physical gathering, a worthy endeavor that represents the spirit of light recreational flying
Look!
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 17
- Next Page »