Features: All Wood/Fabric Construction with minimum welding for fittings and control system Easily disassembled for moving on trailer or auto roof rack Downhill flyer or tow by auto Much safer than hang gliders or ultralights Excellent project for school or clubs Plans Set consists of 2 highly-detailed 24″ by 36″ sheets, Materials Sheet and Safety Tips
Fuselage Steel Tube Conversion available.
Wing Span: 32 ft Chord: 60 in Height: 7 ft Wing Area: 157 sq.ft Length (inc. rudder): 17 ft. 8 in Take off Speed: 15 to 20 mph Top Speed: 30 mph Weight (empty) (wood construction): Approx. 150 lb Seats: 1 Landing gear: fuselage skid
The Bug2 airchair biplane (or sesquiplane) first flew in Februauy of 1999. Bug 4 was intended to be an improved version of Bug2, and was considered superior.
The monoplane airchairs were a furthur development of the Bug4. Construction is of aluminum tubing and steel cable covered with a heat shrunk fabric.
Safety design aspects include: Extensive frangible structure around the pilot for crash impact protection 4 point safety belts A hand deployed emergency parachute which is intended to bring the glider and pilot down together, tail first, so that the pilot is protected by the tail and wing structure during the parachute landing
Construction of the Bug wheeled sailplane is from readily available materials without special welding, machining, or molds. The empty weight, for a not foot launchable glider, is substantially less than the ultralight regulatory weight limit; about the same weight as the pilot.
Quick assembly & roof rack transport make flying convenient. A Bug or Goat can be strapped down onto an ordinary hang glider rack, with no special saddles or pads.
Bug2 and Bug4 have demonstrated casual and comfortable airchair soaring, drogue chute landings in small fields, and novice instruction on training hills. They have been towed by trucks, winches, and ultralight airplanes. The Bugs have soared high, if not far, and have always returned for a safe landing. An airchair can be launched by ultralight aerotow, car tow, winch cable, or just by rolling down an open slope.
Accomplishments of these biplanes include: Self launch soaring by rolling down hillsides Self launch training by rolling down hillsides Car top transport on non-specialized racks
The Bugs fly at about the same speeds as a hang glider, readily mixing with hang glider and paraglider traffic. No formal performance measurements have been made, but all are in the hang glider range and can stay up in good lift conditions. The Bug has soared thousands of feet above take off altitude.
Sandlin has flown the Bug2 and Bug4 for soaring only, not aerobatics. He considers the structural redline (maximum safe airspeed) for flying to be 45 mph.
Bug2 and Bug4 performance has not been measured but seems to be about the same as a single surface hang glider. As of April 2010 only a single Bug4 is known to be currently flying .
Posting of the complete technical drawings of an aircraft on the Internet, freely available in the public domain for downloading and study.
The Goat monoplane glider has been soaring in one version or another since the spring of 2003. The Goat is technically an ultralight sailplane (under United States weight rules) with conventional three axis controls, similar to the Bug4 and the commercial Super Floater. It is designed for slow speed recreational gliding and training. This glider ia an all purpose airchair, allowing comfortable open air soaring, good crash safety, quick assembly, and convenient car top transport.
The idea of an “airchair” is that it flies like a hang glider or paraglider but with improved stability, control, comfort, and crash safety. The glider can be kept at home and transported to the flying site on a simple car top rack. It can be assembled by one person in about 20 minutes. With a wing loading about the same as a hang glider, it flies and soars like a hang glider, making it compatible with many existing hang glider operations, using rolling launches, ground tows, or ultralight aerotows.
The varioius Goats feature: Five or six major separable parts, the heaviest being the the wing panel at 35 to 42 lbs. Emergency parachute, hang glider type, hand deployed 22 gore round canopy PDA, with bridle & swivel 16″ or 14″ diameter wheelbarrow or ultrlight aircraft wheel, tube tire nose skid for braking (no wheel brake), tail skid at rear (or wheel) drogue chute, hang glider type, 5 ft. diam. (flat octagonal) canopy, attached to main struts or flying cables, 27″ outboard from centerline on left side tow hookup with weak link loop, to break at about 110% gross weight Altimeter/variometer mounts on nose tube or strut, hang glider type Quick assembly pins, handles & tapered ends for “drift pin” assembly, all fasteners attached to airframe Flap panels in fixed position, or fixed trailing edge. Four point seat belt Conventional stick and rudder controls
There are no formal values established for performance, pilot weight, or maximum speeds or loads, because no rigorous tests have been performed to measure these values.
The Goat does not foot launch, but is either towed into the air or else launched by rolling down a hillside. Rolling launches are usually made at a site shared with hang gliders and paragliders. This glider flys very much like a hang glider and readily adapting to hang glider techniques and procedures. The Goat1 has made a cross country flight of more than sixty miles, reaching an altitude above 13,000 feet.
Goat1
The Goat1 made it’s first flight on February 1, 2003, and since then has been flying as a weekend soaring glider. It has proven to be a pleasant and practical glider for slope launching and local flying. It is easy to tow behind an ultralight airplane. The struts fold onto the wing for transport. As of December, 2009, Goat1 had new fabric and removable, folding main struts,and is now called the Red Goat.
Goat1
The biggest drawback to the Goat1 design was the large size and heavy weight of the main wing panel with regard to loading or unloading it onto a car top rack. The folded wing half weighs 42 pounds. The primary reason for the Goat2 design was to have a lighter wing panel to reduce the burden of assembly and loading.
Goat1
Goat2 is a simpler, lighter version of Goat1 with almost exactly the same significant dimensions. In contrast to Goat1, the wing and tail boom are cable braced (no struts) and a 14″ diameter ground roll tire is used instead of a 16″ tire. The elevator control lines now run directly to the elevator control arms without any push rod mechanisms, and the removal of the tail plane for storage and transport has been simplified.
Goat2 (February 2005)
Goat3 has a smaller wing than the other Goats, with a fancier, sailplane style airfoil. The struts are removed for transport, and the wing does not have folding panels on the trailing edge. The seat back and shoulder belts are fixed in place on the nose section and do not require attention during assembly.
The reduced wing area of Goat3 forces flying faster, and the new airfoil doesn’t seem to be producing any dramatic performance improvement. As it stands, it looks as if the larger wing with the simpler airfoil (as used by Goat1 & Goat2) may be a suiperior combination for an airchair. Goat3 probably won’t stay up in light conditions as well as the others.
Goat2 was light and eliminated the bulky struts, but all those long cables created their own transport and assembly problems. This led eventually to the creation of Goat4, which retained the cable braced wing but simplified a lot of the assembly mechanics.
Goat4 (March 2007)
Goat4 is essentially a Goat2 wing with Goat3 nose and tail.
The gliders fly at about the same speeds as a hang glider, readily mixing with hang glider and paraglider traffic. No formal performance measurements have been made, but all are in the hang glider range and can stay up in good lift conditions. The Goats 1-4 have soared thousands of feet above take off altitude.
Goat1
Slow flight provides the unique ability to self launch by rolling down open slopes, usually at the same mountain launch sites used by hang gliders and paragliders. This rolling launch has become a standard procedure for local weekend soaring. A launch slope of a vertical drop of about 17 feet over a rolling distance of 72 feet (so, the rolling distance is two wing spans for the Goat) is suitable.
Quick assembly & roof rack transport make flying convenient. A Goat can be strapped down onto an ordinary hang glider rack, with no special saddles or pads.
A Basic Ultralight Glider is not a hang glider (it cannot be foot launched) nor is it what is usually meant by an ultralight airplane (it has no engine). Its construction is “low tech”, at the hand drill and hacksaw level, for easy home building, from readily available materials (it is made mostly from aluminum tubing and steel cable with polyester fabric covering).
This is a home built glider, made with a low level of technology (no welding, no special machining, no molds or jigs, no spray rig) from readily available materials (mostly aluminum tubing, steel cable, aircraft bolts and heat shrink fabric). The Goat is a noncommercial project, with no product or plans for sale, but complete descriptive drawings of the Goat1 through Goat4 are on the Web. These drawings are freely available for whatever purpose the user may desire.
The Pig (Primary Instruction Glider) is an airchair, ultralight biplane sailplane with a two axis control system (rudders & elevator, but no ailerons). A center stick & rudder pedals provide a traditional control system.
The Basic Ultralight Gliders are best characterized by their light wing loading, which is about the same as that of a hang glider (around 1.7 lb. of gross weight for every square foot of wing area). Light wing loading results in slow flight, which is safe, comfortable, and allows soaring in small thermals (because of the ability to turn tightly).
The Pig features: low wing loading for forgiving flight characteristics and rolling launches (1.5 lb/sqft.) open air pilot seating (allows hand thrown emergency parachute) center of lift landing gear (allows simple balance check for proper center of mass) car top transport (major sections separate, wings and tail fold up) one person assembly (37 minute setup for me in my backyard) light weight airframe (about 148 lbs. with parachute) nose skid for quick stops, nose down or tail down attitude for take off or landing
The Pig features simple construction from readily available materials, no molds, no welding, no special machining, no spray rig, no sail making, no sheet metal, etc. The airframe is made of bolted aluminum tubing with braided steel cables, covered with a light grade of conventional aircraft fabric (polyester fabric is cemented on, heat shrunk, then adhesive sealant is applied by brush).
All secondary structures (small ribs) are composites of foam, carbon rod, & fiberglass tape.
Low time pilots should use a glider that is easy to fly, forgiving, and robust, and which has good crash protection for the pilot. Controls and airframe must look and feel good, to engender the confidence that will reduce pilot stress and allow effective learning. The mechanics of launching and landing should be simple and non-athletic. Things should be happening slowly so the student has time to see mistakes and react to them. The Pig is a version of this slow/simple/safe aircraft.
The Pig has two wheels (40 cm. diam. standard kite buggy type), 8 feet apart, rudder turn control, no ailerons (stick moves fore and aft only). 6 degree wing dihedral angle for yaw/roll coupling, and Box kite structure for torsional rigidity.
The wing airfoil is a simple utility type that Sandlin made up (Pigfoil 3012, 12% thick at 30% chord) with a completely flat bottom. This airfoil is similar to that of some radio controlled trainer gliders, and much like a Piper Cub. This is for good low speed flying characteristics and easy construction. This airfoil can also provide a strong and stiff trailing edge which will tolerate rough assembly on irregular terrain (the wing section is assembled with the trailing edge on the ground).
Folding wing design provides a large area wing in a small, light package, allowing transport & assembly by one person.
The eight main wing struts are mounted on swiveling eye bolts, so that during disassembly the struts can be detached at one end and rotated ninety degrees on the other. This allows each upper wing half to be lowered onto the lower wing half, making a compact stack for car top transport. A Pig can be strapped down onto an ordinary hang glider rack, with no special saddles or pads.
Room has been allowed behind the the pilot for installation of a small motor and pusher propeller at about the trailing edge of the wings. The engine frame might replace the two centerline struts, and there are other hard points nearby if required. The prop wash can exit through the box tail without hitting any control surface, avoiding a common source of vibration and drag. Adding a motor to the Pig would create a “motor floater”, a self launching airchair which could play the game of minimal power flight to the nearest thermal.
The two axis control system has proven to be adequate, simple to use, and fun for recreational flying. Launches have been made by line towing and by rolling off open hillsides.
The release handle fot the tow hook is in the middle of the nose tube.
Flying the Pig is simple, a two axis system like a hang glider, “fast-slow, right-left”, not requiring any coordination between the yaw and roll axes as does the three axis system. There is no yaw string, and the general instruction is: “nose level, turn with your feet”.
The initial use of the rudder induces a skid, quickly followed by banking of the wing. Generally, the control feel is quick and stable, and the controls function just as well as on any of the three axis airchairs. There are special two axis procedures, such as keeping the nose low while ground rolling in a cross wind, so the weight of the glider on the wheels will keep the wings level.
Its first high flight was made in September, 2008.
Nothing is for sale and there are no commercial intentions. The Pig1 technical drawings are available for on line viewing or download, Basic Ultralight Glider homepage, “Pig Drawings”. There are 81 drawings available in three different file formats.
Mike Sandlin designed and built what he calls “airchair” basic ultralight gliders. The Pig1, Goats1 & 4, and Bug4, are home built, basic ultralight gliders. Technically these aircraft are ultralight sailplanes, but they are best described as “airchairs”, which are simple, slow flying gliders with the pilot sitting out in the open air rather than inside a fuselage.
The airchair dersigns are intended to provide open air soaring, forgiving flight characteristics, convenient transport, simple “garage technology” construction, and a high level of crash safety. In the United States, all unpowered ultralights, including paragliders, hang gliders, and airchairs are regulated under FAR Part 103, which allows gliders to be built and flown with no direct official oversight as long as they weigh less than 155 lbs.
The complete descriptive drawings of the Pig1, Goat4, Bug4, and some of their predecessors are free and available for downloading in CAD format. In addition, the the Goat4 drawings can be viewed on his Web. His activities are noncommercial and all of the materials on his website are available for whatever purposes the user may consider worthwhile.
In the summer of1930 this company built at least two examples of a glider designed by Mr E.J. Clark, the Secretary of the Derby & Districts Aero Club. These gliders may have been of the type known as the Midland Sailplane.
The SABCA S.13 Junior was a single seat high-wing basic training ultra-light glider of 1930.
At the start of the 1930s, SABCA wanted to relaunch the construction of gliders and designed this initiation glider to obtain A and B certificates for young pilots.
First flying in 1930, the glider was directly inspired by the German Zögling, the most visible difference being the stabilizer in the shape of a half-disc.
This glider will have a short career, especially since it was banned from flight for about a year, following a fatal accident.
The ST-100 Cloudster tandem two-seater motor glider is believed to be the first American type in this category to be designed for production, and was created by the Ryson Aviation Corporation. A Pazmany designed self launching sailplane called the Cloudster, in mem¬ory of the original flagship of Ryan Airlines. The work Pazmany did designing the Cloudster’s landing gear led him to write the book “Landing Gear Design For Light Aircraft”.
Design work started on 18 March 1974 as a cantilever low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, with a T-tail, a fixed spatted undercarriage and a conventional engine installation with a Continental O-200, and of all-metal construction. The wings are all-metal safe-life structures, with some fail-safe features, and have a single main spar located at the 40% chord line, the point of maximum thickness, and an auxiliary spar at 80% chord; dihedral is 4°. Both ailerons and trailing edge flaps are of aluminium with a foam core, the flaps being electrically-operated and can be lowered to 72° when used as air brakes; the ailerons, like the flaps, can be raised 12° and they can be drooped 8° in conjunction with the flaps. After that, the flaps continue down to any desired position. No spoilers or trim tabs are fitted, and the wings can be folded back alongside the fuselage, leading edges down, for hangarage or transportation. The fuselage is a semi-monocoque structure with extruded aluminium longerons, and sheet metal frames, bulkheads and skinning. The pilots sit in tandem under a one-piece Plexiglas canopy that opens sideways to starboard; there is baggage space aft of the rear seat, and the rear occupant has flight controls but not an instrument panel, as he can see the instruments over the front pilot’s shoulders. Both seats are designed to accommodate parachutes, and the cockpit is heated and ventilated. The cantilever T-tail has a sweptback fin and rudder, a fixed-incidence tailplane and a one-piece balanced elevator. The rudder and elevator are aluminium-covered, with sheet metal and foam ribs, and the elevator tips can be removed when the aircraft is being transported; the elevator has an anti-servo and trim tab. A conventional fixed tailwheel landing gear is featured, with streamlined glassfibre fairings on the main gear legs, main wheels and tailwheel, which is steerable. The main wheels have Cleveland hydraulic disc brakes and Ryson oleo-pneumatic shock absorbers. Powerplant is a 100hp Continental 0-200-A ‘flat four’ engine driving a two-blade three-position Hoffman HO-V-62 feathering propeller with composite blades. There are two integral fuel tanks in the wing centre section leading edges with a total capacity of 32 US gallons (26.6 Imp gallons.)
Construction of the prototype, registered N2RY, began on 11 July 1974; it made its first flight on 21 December 1976 in the hands of test pilot Ray Cote.
The ST-100 is designed to be aerobatic and to meet the FAR Part 23 gust load requirements. It can also be used as an aero-tow aircraft for unpowered sailplanes. It has towed a Schweizer SGS 1-26 single-seater to 13,000ft with an initial climb rate of 450ft/min and, with two people aboard, it has also towed a Schweizer SGS 2-33 with two occupants at an initial rate of climb of about 400ft/min.
In the summer of 1977 Ray Cote made a notable economy-record flight in the ST-100 from El Mirage, California, to the EAA display at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, covering the 1,676 miles on 28 of the 32 available US gallons of fuel in 18 hours of soaring flight and 13 hours of powered flight. This was followed by a 4,300 mile flight around the perimeter of the United States. Only 20-percent power is required to keep the Cloudster in level flight. As a touring airplane, it cruises at 135 mph (75-percent power) using just 6 gph to yield a range of 690 miles. At lower power settings, the range can be greatly increased.
Production of the ST-100 by a licensee was planned when FAA type certification was awarded.
Engine: Continental O-200, 74.5 kW / 100 hp Span: 57 ft 8 in / 17.58 m Length: 25 ft 6.5 in / 7.78 m Height: 5 ft 10 in / 1.78 m Wingarea: 213.0 sq.ft / 19.79 sq.m Aspect ratio: 15.61 Airfoil: Wortmann FX 67-170/17 Empty weight: 1,212 lb / 550 kg Max weight: 1,650 lb / 748 kg Water ballast: None Max wing loading 7.74 lb/sq ft / 37.8 kg/sq.m Max speed at sea level: 150 mph / 130 kt / 241 km/h Max cruising speed: 135 mph Stalling speed 69 km/h / 37 kt Min sinking speed: 2.93 ft/sec / 0.89 m/sec Best glide ratio: 28:1 T-O run: 570ft / 174m Take-off run to 50ft: 950 ft Max rate of climb at S/L: 895 fpm / 273 m/min Range 595 nm / 1,103 km Range with max fuel: 900 miles
Ryson Aviation Corporation was founded by T. Claude Ryan, who until 1969 was chariman and chief executive of the Ryan Aeronautical Co; his son Jerome D Ryan was Executive Vice-President of Ryson and Mr Ladislao Pazmany was Chief Engineer.
Rutan’s canard self-launching sailplane attracted much attention when it won the Sailplane Homebuilders Association Design Contest in 1982. The engine, with electric starter for air starting, erects from and retracts into a bay in the forward fuselage by means of electro-hydraulic power. The canard configuration is intended to make the ship virtually stall-proof as the canard stalls before the main wing, causing the ship to pitch nose-down and preventing the main wing from stalling. That, however, does not mean that mishandling cannot cause very high sink rates. The main wing has trailing edge flaps which also operate as spoilers by the leading edge coming above the top surface of the wing when deploying. The effective spoil flap trailing edge surfaces provide good glidepath control.
The Solitaire is a single-place, self-launching canard sailplane developed for recreational soaring, Landing gear is tandem wheels with wingtip rollers. It features a KSM 107-E. 22-hp engine and a retractable propeller. Its structure is all-composite, with prefab molded fuselage shells. Task Research was the manufacturer of the composite moldings kit for the Solitaire.
By 1990 the Rutan design stable of VariEze, LongEze, Defiant and Solitaire were no longer offered for sale.
L/D Max: 32 93 kph / 50 kt / 58 mph Min Sink: 0.75 m/s / 2.5 fps / 1.48 kt Wing span: 12.7 m / 41.75 ft Wing area: 9.52 sq.m / 102.44 sq.ft Empty Weight: 172 kg / 380 lb Payload: 109 kg / 240 lb Gross Weight: 281 kg / 620 lb Fuel capacity: 5 USG Wing Load: 39.52 kg/sq.m / 6.05lb/sq.ft Aspect ratio: 10.78 Airfoil: wing inboard, Roncz 517, outboard 515 Min. flying speed 32 kts Vmax 115 kts L/D 32:1 @ 50 kts Sink rate 150 fpm @ 40 kts Takeoff run 960 ft Landing roll 500 ft Seats: 1
All Aero 