Polaris Slip

Here’s Polar Star’s entry in the minitrike sweepstakes.
You probably know Polaris even if you aren’t aware of the company name. Odds are good you’ve seen a picture of the Polaris inflatable flying boat. This is a trike with a small boat built around a steel trike frame. It looks unusual and remains unique.
Polaris claims to have shipped over 600 of these flying inflatable boats, once known as the Air Dinghy. The company reports these are flying around the world, owned by tourist resorts, Navy and police departments, Greenpeace ships, yacht owners, research marine institutions, and private pilots.

The company originated in Italy but opened an American office after founder, Doi Malingri, retired in Florida. Along with several Americans including Dave Melillo and Vince Kaufman, Malingri has established a U.S distribution center called Polar Star Group, a division of Polaris Motor.
Established in 1982, Polaris is experienced in aircraft manufacturing. Like many trike ultralight companies, Polaris began as a hang glider builder. At one time, the company was delivering more than 1000 new hang gliders a year, ranking as one of the top three producers in the world.
In 1985, Polaris added powered trikes that later claimed the heart of the company. The company no longer builds hang gliders though it continues to build trike wings; they are not the same.
In addition to the unmistakable flying inflatable boat, Polar Star markets the Skin series of trikes plus our focus this month, the Slip. Polaris offers a selection of wings named the Ares, Gryps and (you won’t forget this one) the Spit.
Despite the intriguing nature of the flying inflatable boat, our focus this month is on the lightest end of the Polar Star trike line, the Slip.
Of the three in our mini series Slip is the lightest trike at a modest 85 pounds (trike chassis only), according to the manufacturer. Valuable in the design of any aircraft, lightness is especially beneficial to hang glider soaring as it significantly improves sink rate performance.
One way the Slip stays so light is through the use of a 14-hp Minarelli engine. Seeming to be hardly enough power for the job, the engine comes from an Italian firm that makes racing go-kart engines (Slip uses a detuned version). Light airframes require less power that allows further lightening of airframe weight: quite a virtuous circle.
Italians are generally credited with beautiful designs. Think of Ferrari automobiles, Italian shoes or Roman architecture. Though the Slip is deliberately as simple as Polaris could make it, it nonetheless enjoys effective use of hardware. For example, this tiny trike has a trailing-link nosewheel that is missing on most big two-seat trikes. Such linkage keeps the wheel aimed straight, which is a benefit to any landing. In addition, the Slip comes standard with electric starting.
Besides the choice of small engine, the Slip has wire-braced main tubing. Putting the structure in tension via cable bracing has long proven a way to keep aircraft extremely light and strong. Slip is made of just five tubes: the fore-to-aft keel, the upright mast, a forward support tube, and two gear legs. Only an engine mount and nosewheel steering linkage add extra pounds.
Slip also does away with the usual seat frame, electing instead to suspend the seat. A well-padded seat nicely envelopes the pilot and holds him or her securely in place with a proper four-point seat belt system.
Like all the designs in our mini series on mini trikes, the Slip is primarily aimed at hang glider pilots, although any trike pilot with an eye to soaring flight could also be interested. And more pilots might try hang gliding if they could get launched on their own at times that were convenient to them (after training, of course!). Tiny as Slip is, it completely takes the athletic nature of hang gliding flight out of the equation.
As with all trikes, you have several choices for wings to use with the Slip. You could elect a simple-flying, easy-handling, single-surface hang glider wing that would make soaring flight on mild days a thing of pure joy. However, in stronger winds, most hang glider pilots want the ability to penetrate-to make headway upwind.
You can attach the hang glider wing of your choice, though you’ll want to check with the manufacturer first. A single-surface model would provide a low sink rate, while a double-surface wing can insure better penetration. Pilots looking for the most performance can consider any number of modern wings.
The wing, of course, will make the primary difference in how the trike flies. Climb rate will generally be fastest on the wing with the largest area, while top speeds will increase with smaller, more highly loaded wings.
If you can’t decide which wing to put on your Slip, you could always own two wings to suit different conditions. This versatility is one of the ways trikes remain popular.
You buy the trike chassis separately as you would with the SkyCycle noted last month. The trike is reasonably priced at $4500. Because you could add a used hang glider wing to the trike, you might get in the air for less than $6000.
As ultralights go, this is inexpensive, and it comes fully built. As motorgliders go, this is so cheap it isn’t even worth comparing. You can fly a Slip as a powered ultralight, but you can also take off your hang glider wing for unpowered flight; versatility is unusually good. And with a low fuel burn, your 2.6-gallon fuel supply can last 3.5 hours, Malingri claims. Flying can hardly get less expensive.
The Slip is specifically designed to pack down really small. The call it a duffel bag airplane. In fact, Malingri says one man who bought at Sun *’n Fun 1998 took his minitrike home as airline excess baggage.
You will need weight shift flying skills to operate a Slip or the company’s Skin or flying inflatable boat. This is true of all trikes, yet they are among the world’s most popular aircraft, so training is available in many locations.
Ring up Dave Melillo or Doi Malingri and chat with these fellows. Who knows? A Slip may be just what your air doctor ordered. For fun flying, the littlest Polaris looks like a bargain plus it’s just so darn cute.