The Foxbat/FIedge III was a single seat single engined high wing monoplane with hybrid control. An American ultralight aircraft that was designed by Bill Armour and produced by Manta Products Inc of Oakland, California. The aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.

Manta Foxbat Article

The Foxbat was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, including the category’s maximum empty weight of 254 lb (115 kg). The aircraft has a standard empty weight of 200 lb (91 kg). It features a cable-braced high-wing, a single-seat, open cockpit, tricycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration. Undercarriage has three wheels in tricycle formation; steel spring suspension on nosewheel and glass fibre suspension on main wheels. Push right go left (push right go right optional) nosewheel steering independent from yaw control. Brakes on main wheels. Wing has swept back leading and trailing edges, and tapering chord; no tail. Wing braced from above by kingpost and cables, from below by cables; 90% double surface.

The aircraft is made from bolted-together 6061T6 aluminum tubing, with the wing covered in Dacron sailcloth. Its 32.5 ft (9.9 m) span wing is supported by cables strung from an inverted V style kingpost. The wing is derived from the Manta Fledge hang glider wing. The control system is unconventional and uses a hang glider style control bar for weight shift control of pitch and roll, augmented with wing tip rudders for yaw, activated by hand controls on the control bar. The fuselage is an open frame structure that is attached to the wing via a flexible single point mount, to allow weight shift control. The pilot is accommodated on a sling seat in trike unit, using bar to control pitch and roll by altering relative positions of trike unit and wing. Yaw control by tip rudders operated by control bar sliders. The landing gear is of tricycle configuration, with a steerable nose wheel.

Strictly speaking, this machine is not a trike, since it does not use a Rogallo wing, but in essence it is the same concept: a combination of a hang glider with a power pack/seating/undercarriage unit. In this case, the hang glider is Manta’s own rigid wing hybrid control Fledge III rather than a Rogallo, combined with the purpose designed Foxbat ‘trike unit’. A feature of the Foxbat is its geared down nosewheel steering, which allows the pilot to keep the nosewheel firmly on course during rough field take offs and landings.

Manta Products announced in January 1983 the adoption for the Foxbat of the Kawasaki TA440A 38.5 hp engine. Previously these aircraft had been equipped in standard form with the Cuyuna 430D or on option a 430R or Zenoah G25B (22 hp) engine with a reduction drive of 2.25/1.

The pilot is comfortably installed in a bucket seat and the four semi rigid tie in points of the trike unit to the sail act as a shock absorber. The options include electric start, a three blade variable pitch propeller, a wider body with larger seat, floats and a strobe light. Price complete is $5360 in 1982.
No longer in production.

The Foxbat wing can be folded for ground transport and storage.

Engine: Kawasaki TA440A, 38.5 hp at 6000 rpm.
Toothed belt reduction, ratio 2.0/1.
Power per unit area 0.24hp/sq.ft, 2.6hp/sq.m.
Fuel capacity 5.0 US gal, 4.2 Imp gal, 18.9 litre.
Length overall 10.0 ft, 3.05 m.
Height overall 6.0ft, 1.83m.
Wing span 33.5ft, 10.21m.
Chord at root 5.8ft, 1.75 m.
Chord at tip 4.6 ft, 1.40 m.
Sweepback 16 deg.
Total wing area 157 sq.ft, 14.6sq.m.
Wing aspect ratio 6.7/1.
Wheel track 5.2 ft, 1.57 m.
Wheelbase 6.0ft, 1.83 m.
Main wheels diameter overall 20 inch, 51 cm.
Empty weight 215 lb, 98kg.
Max take off weight 549 lb, 249kg.
Payload 334 lb, 151kg.
Max wing loading 3.50 lb/sq.ft, 17.1 kg/sq.m.
Max power loading 14.3 lb/hp, 6.5 kg/hp.
Max level speed 55 mph, 88 kph.
Never exceed speed 55 mph, 88 kph.
Max cruising speed 45 mph, 72 kph.
Economic cruising speed 35 mph, 56 kph.
Stalling speed 22 mph, 35 kph.
Max climb rate at sea level 425 ft/min, 2.2 m/s.
Min sink rate 300ft/min, 1.5m/s.
Best glide ratio with power off 9/1.
Take off distance 75 ft, 23 m.
Landing distance 50 ft, 15 m.
Range at average cruising speed 130 mile, 209km.

FX-3
Engine: 1 × Cuyuna 430, 30 hp (22 kW)
Propellers: 2-bladed wooden
Length: 8 ft (2.4 m)
Wingspan: 32 ft 6 in (9.91 m)
Wing area: 157 sq ft (14.6 sq.m)
Empty weight: 190 lb (86 kg)
Gross weight: 425 lb (193 kg)
Wing loading: 2.7 lb/sq ft (13 kg/m²)
Fuel capacity: 5 U.S. gallons (19 lt / 4.2 imp gal)
Cruise speed: 35 mph (30 kt / 56 km/h)
Stall speed: 22 mph (19 kt / 35 km/h)
Range: 100 mi (87 nmi / 161 km)
Endurance: 2.75
Maximum glide ratio: 12:1
Rate of climb: 400 ft/min (2.0 m/s)
Crew: one

Designed and constructed by Bjorn Andreasson and Rudolf Abelin, the Malmö Flygindustri (MFI) BA-12 Sländan is a single seat ultralight of pod and high boom configuration and with a butterfly tail. Designed and built in Sweden in the 1980s, the Sländan (English: Dragonfly) was the first Swedish microlight apart from glider based types. It is built from composite materials, with a square section beam formed in two halves supporting the engine well ahead of the wing leading edge and extending aft continuously to the tail. The wings, rectangular in plan and with a high aspect ratio (10:1), are attached to the beam with dihedral of 1.5 degrees. Ailerons cover 30% of the trailing edge. The wing has two pressed spars, foam filled glass fibre ribs and Kevlar filled glass fibre sandwich skins. The butterfly tail surfaces are also rectangular and assisted by a short ventral fin with the same chord as the tailplane.

The round nosed, single seat cabin is formed from six bonded pieces and mounted on the boom with its windscreen at the wing leading edge, placing the pilot below the wing at about one quarter chord. The sides are normally open though complete enclosure is an option. On each side a forward leaning bracing strut runs from the lower rear cabin to the front wing spar. The Sländan has a short, fixed, tricycle undercarriage with a steerable nosewheel; the mainwheels, fitted with brakes, are mounted on straight steel cantilever legs from the lower fuselage. There is a protective tailskid on the tip of the underfin.

The prototype Sländan was initially powered by a (21 kW) (28 hp) König SD 570 4-cylinder two-stroke engine though there were plans to replace this with a Lotus Magnum 2.25 when this type became available. At least three examples have been fitted with Rotax engines.

The Sländan first flew in 1984 and by February 1985 MFI were assembling five more. It was agreed that later aircraft should be produced by the Royal Swedish Aero Club using MFI’s moulds and tools. It was intended to market the Sländan in both flyaway and kit form. At about the same time, in a collaboration between MFI and FFK Aerotech, Andreasson was developing a slightly larger, two seat version called the FFV Aerotech BA-14 Starling.

Three Rotax powered, Swedish registered Sländans appeared on the mid-2010 civil aircraft registers of Europe.

BA-12 Sländan
Engine: 1 × König SD 570, 21 kW (28 hp) at 4,200 rpm
Reduction: 1.7:1 toothed belt
Propeller: 3-bladed
Length: 5.20 m (17 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 10.00 m (32 ft 10 in)
Height: 2.0 m (6 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 10.0 sq.m (108 sq ft)
Aspect ratio: 10.0
Airfoil: laminar type, 15% thickness to chord ratio
Empty weight: 135 kg (298 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 250 kg (551 lb)
Fuel capacity: 20.0 L (5.3 US gal, 4.4 Imp gal)
Maximum speed: 110 km/h (68 mph; 59 kn)
Cruising speed: 100 km/h (62 mph; 54 kn) maximum
Stall speed: 40 km/h (25 mph; 22 kn)
Never exceed speed: 118 km/h (73 mph; 64 kn)
Service ceiling: 1,220 m (4,003 ft) service
g limits: +4.4/-2.2 recommended
Rate of climb: 4.1 m/s (810 ft/min) maximum at sea level
Wing loading: 25.0 kg/m2 (5.1 lb/sq ft)
Power/mass: 8.4 W/kg (0.051 hp/lb)
Take-off distance: 50 m
Landing distance: 50 m
Crew: 1