The Extra 200 is a lower-cost, two-seat and 200 hp aerobatic competition and aerobatic training monoplane (first flown 1996).
Extra 200 / Extra 230
Aircraft
Extra Flugzeubau GmbH
Produces the Extra 200 lower-cost, two-seat and 200 hp aerobatic competition and aerobatic training monoplane (first flown 1996); Extra 300 in single-seat 300 hp aerobatic competition (300 S), tandem two-seat aerobatic and training/cross-country (300), and 300 L low-wing (instead of mid-wing) variants; Extra 330 as a derivative of Extra 300 with Textron Lycoming AEIO-580 engine; and Extra 400 pressurized high-wing six-seat touring cabin monoplane (first flown 1996).
Express Design Loadmaster
First flown in 1993 as Express Design type
Express Design Express / Wheeler Express
The Wheeler Express was designed not around the standard issue 170lb pilot/passenger, the aircraft providing two inches additional head and leg room. Cockpit width is the same as a late model Beech Bonanza. Designer Ken Wheeler reasoned that, as a four place aircraft, much of the flight time would be logged on long distance cross country with a consequent requirement for comfort. The basic construction of the Express is a foam covered sandwich, monocoque structure; built up from E glass, various foam core materials and vynalester resin.
Formed in two pieces split horizontally, the fuselage comes ready to be joined; the packing case serving as the lower fuselage jig.
The aircraft is stressed to 11 Gs. Powered by a Lycoming IO-360, the low wing, fixed tricycle undercarriage Wheeler Express is said to out-lift a Cardinal, out-distance a Bonanza and out-climb a Mooney.
In 1988 the kit price was US$19,750.
In 1998 Express Aircraft offered a revised version of the Express in kit form. The claim was the composite four seater would be easier to build, lighter, and with a larger tailplane to improve handling. Construction time was still more than 2000 hrs.
The production Express featured a larger fuselage and a new powerplant. The four seat composite aircraft is now powered by a six cylinder, 210 hp Continental engine, which provides a 210 mph cruise over a 1,200 mile range.
Optional low or cruiciform tail, and cargo pod requiring a minimum of 250 hp.
Wheeler Express
Engine: Lycoming IO-360, 200 hp
Wingspan: 31 ft
MTOW: 2300 lb
Fuel capacity: 51 USG
Cruise: 195 mph at 7000 ft
Range: 1100 mi
Engine: Lycoming IO-540, 300 hp
Wing span: 9.45 m
Wing area: 11.96 sq.m
MAUW: 1452 kg
Empty weight: 835 kg
Fuel capacity: 348 lt
Max speed: 362 kph
Cruise speed: 338 kph
Minimum speed: 92 kph
Climb rate: 8 m/s
Fuel consumption: 50 lt/hr
Seats: 4
Kit price (1998): $32,000
90 FT
Engine: Lycoming IO-540, 300 hp.
Speed max: 220 mph.
Cruise: 220 mph.
Range: 1450 sm.
Stall: 58 mph.
ROC: 1200 fpm.
Take-off dist: 1200 ft.
Landing dist: 800 ft.
Service ceiling: 20,000 ft.
Fuel cap: 92 USG.
Weight empty: 1875 lbs.
Gross: 3200 lbs.
Height: 8 ft.
Length: 25 ft.
Wing span: 31 ft.
Wing area: 130 sq.ft.
Seats: 4-6.
Landing gear: nose wheel.
90 TD
Engine: Lycoming IO-550, 280 hp.
Speed max: 235 mph.
Cruise: 225 mph.
Range: 1600 sm.
Stall: 58 mph.
ROC: 1200 fpm.
Take-off dist: 1200 ft.
Landing dist: 800 ft.
Service ceiling: 20,000 ft.
Fuel cap: 92 USG.
Weight empty: 1790 lbs.
Gross: 3200 lbs.
Height: 8 ft.
Length: 25 ft.
Wing span: 31 ft.
Wing area: 130 sq.ft.
Seats: 4-6.
Landing gear: tail wheel.
S-90
Engine: Lycoming IO-540-K1G5, 300 hp.
Vne: 230 kt.
Cruise 75%: 185 kts.
Stall: 55 kts.
Seats: 4.
Express Design Inc / Express Aircraft Co. LLC / Wheeler
1995: PO Box 609, Redmond, OR 97756, USA.
Ken Wheeler first produced the Express but on the 1992 bankruptcy, the rights were acquired by Ralph Kenner.
1997-8: Express Aircraft Co. LLC, 7825 Old Highway 99 SE, Ste 200 Olympia, WA 98501, USA.
In 2003 Larry Olson, the owner of Express Aircraft, crashed enroute to AirVenture in his turbine powered, retractable Express.
2004: Wheeler Technologies, Tacoma-¬Narrows Airport, Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, USA,
Company re-formed 1997 to sell kits of the Express four seat composites-built cabin monoplane, previously marketed by Wheeler, Express Design, and Experimental Aircraft Technologies. Also marketing kits for six-seat Loadmaster (first flown 1993 as Express Design type), Express CT, Srs 90 and Auriga.
Explorer Private Explorer
The tube and spaceframe Private Explorer offers 9.5sq.m of cabin area, high enough to stand up in. Circa 1998.
Engine: Lycoming
Wing span: 14.4 m
Wing area: 26.7 sq.m
MAUW: 1667 kg
Empty weight: 973 kg
Fuel capacity: 300 lt
Max speed: 200 kph
Cruise speed: 180 kph
Minimum speed: 67 kph
Fuel consumption: 40 lt/hr
Explorer Ellispe
Explorer Aviation offers kits to build the Ellipse four-seat high-wing monoplane, first flown 1997.
A folding wing design, the wings are pre-built.
Empty weight: 534 kg
Wing span: 11.16 m
Wing area: 11.78 sq.m
Fuel capacity: 155 lt
Engine: Lycoming O-320, 150 hp
MAUW: 998 kg
Seats: 4
Max speed: 265 kph
Cruise speed: 246 kph
Minimum speed: 71 kph
Climb rate: 7 m/s
Fuel consumption: 30 lt/hr
Kit price (1998): $35,000
Top speed: 164 mph
Cruise: 156 mph
Stall: 55 mph
Range: 650 sm
Rate of climb: 942 fpm
Takeoff dist: 1100ft
Landing dist: 1100 ft
Service ceiling: 15,200 ft
Glide ratio: 14:1
Engine: Lycoming O-320, 150 hp
HP range: 125-200
Fuel capacity: 41 USG
Empty weight: 1177 lb
Gross weight: 2200 lb
Height: 6.3 ft
Length: 20 ft
Wing span: 36.6 ft
Wing area: 128 sq.ft
Seats: 4
Landing gear: tailwheel
Explorer Aviation
1997-8: 120 E. South 6th, Grangeville, ID 83530, USA.
Offers kits to build the Ellipse four-seat high-wing monoplane, first flown 1997.
Explorer PG-1 Aqua Glider
One of the very few waterborne gliders, the Aqua Glider single-seater is also unusual in being a biplane; it is intended for tethered gliding by unlicensed pilots, and is towed behind any speedboat that can attain a speed of 30kt (35mph). The pilot can also cast off from the speedboat when airborne and make a free flight before landing back on the water, but to do this he must have a licence. The Aqua Glider was designed by Col William L. Skliar, USAF (Ret’d), who began design work on it in September 1958, the prototype making its first flight in July 1959. After making about 1,000 flights and being flown by about 60 pilots, the prototype was donated to the Experimental Aircraft Association Museum in Milwaukee.
Approximately 1,000 sets of plans have now been sold to amateur constructors in more than 20 countries all over the world, and about 200 Aqua Gliders were under construction; about 12 are known to have flown, in the Bahamas, Brazil and Japan as well as in the USA. The forward staggered single bay biplane wings are conventional single-spar wooden structures with fabric covering, and there are spoiler-type light alloy ailerons on the lower wing only, immediately behind the main spar.
Balance floats – basically just plate-type fairings – are carried at the extremities of the lower wing tips. The pilot sits in an open cockpit in the unstopped watertight wooden hull and, instead of a conventional planing bottom, take-offs are made on a pair of standard jumper skis, 6 ft in length, attached to small wire-braced struts below the hull. The latter is of spruce with a mahogany plywood bow, bottom skins and sides, the plywood being glass fibre covered below the waterline. There is a towing hook on the nose. The wire-braced tail unit is of spruce with plywood and fabric covering, and is carried on a boom of welded steel tube or wire-braced wooden construction. The rudder is conventional and the tailplane an all-moving one-piece surface.
Span: 4.87m / 16 ft
Wing Area: 14.28 sq.m / 95 sq.ft
Aspect ratio: 5.0
Airfoil: NACA 4412
Length: 13 ft 8 in
Height: 5 ft 0 in
Empty Weight: 83 kg / 180 lb
Payload: 100 kg / 220 lb
Gross Weight: 182 kg / 400 lb
Wing Load: 20.61 kg/sq.m / 4.5 lb/sq.ft
Max speed: 65 mph (in smooth air)
Stalling speed: 35mph
L/DMax: 6.5 at 72 kph / 39 kt / 45 mph
Seats: 1
Experimental Aviation Berkut / Renaissance Composites Berkut
Outwardly reminiscent of the Long EZ, the new composite canard used the Burt Rutan design as a starting point. Added to the aerodynamic appeal is fully retractable landing gear, split canopies, a 205 hp engine and a longer, wider pre moulded fuselage.
Named after the Berkut (Berkoot), a Russian Golden Eagle, by designer Dave Ronnenberg, the new craft uses a Lycoming 0 360 to provide a cruise of 208 knots indicated at 8000 feet on 2840rpm.
Constructed of carbon fibre and fibreglass a balsa core sandwich with a safety epoxy matrix the canard pusher has an overall length of some 18 foot 6in. The cockpit features a sidearm controller/stick with HOTAS (Hands On Throttle and Stick Controls). Going through its test programme in 1991 with manufacturing company Experimental Aviation, the aircraft has a claimed range of 1,400 nm at 65 percent power. Other preliminary specifications include a 2000 fpm ROC, 54 knots minimum controllable airspeed gear down, an endur¬ance of 5.5 hours at 65 percent power, a ceiling of 35,000 feet, maximum useful load of 965 lbs and an empty weight of 1,035 lbs.
The prototype Berkut was designed and built by Dave H. Ronneberg and Kerry Beresford.
Like the Long EZ, the Berkut carries 2 people in tandem seats. The front seat occupant has access to all instrumentation and controls. The rear seat, normally holding the passenger, is equipped with a side stick and throttle, but no rudder pedals, brakes, or instruments.
Out of 57 kits sold by 1998, 7 were finished.
Builder Jerrold Jorritsma installed a General Electric T-58 jet engine in his Berkut.
It was destroyed following an engine failure in Loveland, CO, May 9, 2010.
Engine: Lycoming IO-360-B1A, 205 hp.
HP range: 180-205.
Height: 7.5 ft.
Length: 18.5 ft.
Wing span: 26.67 ft.
Wing area: 110 sq.ft.
Weight empty: 1035 lbs.
Gross: 2000 lbs.
Fuel cap: 58 USG.
Speed max: 250 mph.
Cruise: 209 mph.
Range: 1228 sm.
Stall: 62 mph.
ROC: 2000 fpm.
Take-off dist: 1000 ft.
Landing dist: 1000 ft.
Service ceiling: 29,500 ft.
Seats: 2.
Landing gear: retractable nose wheel.
Renaissance Composites Berkut
Engine: Lycoming IO
Wing span: 8.12 m
Wing area: 10.12 sq.m
MAUW: 907 kg
Empty weight: 469 kg
Fuel capacity: 219 lt
Max speed: 398 kph
Cruise speed: 385 kph
Minimum speed: 107 kph
Climb rate: 10 m/s
Fuel consumption: 38 lt/hr
Seats: 2
Kit price (1998): $34,480
