Ultralight Aviation - Types of Aircraft

Types of Aircraft

While ultralight-type planes date back to the early 1900s (such as the Santos-Dumont Demoiselle), there have been three generations of modern, fixed-wing ultralight aircraft designs, which are generally classed by the type of structure.

The first generation of modern ultralights were actually hang gliders with small engines added to them, to create powered hang gliders. The wings on these were flexible, braced by wires, and steered by shifting the pilot's weight under the wing.

The second generation ultralights began to arrive in the mid-1970s. These were designed as powered aircraft, but still used wire bracing and usually single-surface wings. Most of these have "2-axis" control systems, operated by stick or yoke, which control the elevators (pitch) and the rudder (yaw) -- there are no ailerons, so may be no direct control of banking (roll). A few 2-axis designs use spoilers on the top of the wings, and pedals for rudder control. Examples of 2-Axis ultralights are the "Pterodactyl" and the "Quicksilver MX".

The third generation ultralights, arriving in the early 1980s, have strut-braced wings and airframe structure. Nearly all use 3-axis control systems, as used on standard airplanes, and these are the most popular. Third generation designs include the CGS Hawk, Kolb Ultrastar and Quad City Challenger.

There are several types of aircraft which qualify as ultralights, but which do not have fixed-wing designs. These include:

• Weight-shift control trike - while the first generation ultralights were also controlled by weight shift, most of the current weight shift ultralights use a hang glider-style wing, below which is suspended a three-wheeled carriage which carries the engine and aviators. These aircraft are controlled by pushing against a horizontal control bar in roughly the same way as a hang glider pilot flies. Trikes generally have impressive climb rates and are ideal for rough field operation, but are slower than other types of fixed-wing ultralights.

• Powered parachutes - cart mounted engines with parafoil wings, which are wheeled aircraft.

• Powered paragliding - backpack engines with parafoil wings, which are foot-launched.

• Powered hang glider - motorized foot-launched hang glider harness.

• Autogyro - rotary wing with cart mounted engine, a gyrocopter is different from a helicopter in that the rotating wing is not powered, the engine provides forward thrust and the airflow through the rotary blades causes them to autorotate or "spin up" to create lift. Most of these use a design based on the Bensen B-8 gyrocopter.

• Helicopter - there are a number of single-seat and two-place helicopters which fall under the microlight categories in countries such as New Zealand. However, few helicopter designs fall within the more restrictive ultralight category defined in the United States of America. Two examples that do are the Mosquito Air and XEL designs from Innovator Technologies, Inc.

• Hot air balloon - there are numerous ultralight hot air balloons in the US, and several more have been built and flown in France and Australia in recent years. Some ultralight hot air balloons are hopper balloons, while others are regular hot air balloons that carry passengers in a basket.