Fri, Aug 01, 2003
Classic Italian styling and Swiss engineering produces
beautiful tandem 2-seater
By ANN Correspondent Juan Jimenez
At first glance, there is only one thought that comes to mind:
"Honey, I shrunk the Avanti." AceAir SA, based out of Manno, on the
Italian side of Switzerland, has brought their first creation to
Oshkosh, the Aeriks 200, a very stylish composite canard kit
airplane with interior features reminiscent of high-end automotive
designs than the typical canard homebuilt.
Fresh off its first flight on May 29, 2002 at the hands of test
pilot Walter Spychiger, this aircraft is equipped with 105
horsepower Diamond Engines rotary engine (previously known as
Midwest Rotary Engines), driving a three-blade MT Propellers
composite three-blade prop with a 2024-T3 driveshaft. The engine is
fully embedded in the rear section of the aircraft, and is cooled
by three NACA scoops, two on the sides below the wing roots and one
in front of the vertical stabilizer.
The aircraft is designed for a 200 kt VNE, 155 kts maximum speed
at Sea Level, and a maximum cruising speed of 140 kts at 8,000 MSL.
Clean stall is 65 kts and full flaps drops that number to 54 kts.
With a fuel tank capacity of 29 gals, endurance is estimated at 5
hours, for a zero-wind range of approximately 700 nm.
According to AceAir, the design process of the aircraft was as
high tech as its looks - CAD/CAM tools were employed to lay out the
design, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite-element
structural analysis (FEM/FEA) studies were performed to work out as
many of the issues that could be identified with CATIA computer
workstations. All the molds for the aircraft components were
produced with CNC hardware.
During OSH, the company is offering the first three airframe
kits for $50,000. This does not include an engine, propeller,
avionics or paint.
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