Thursday, February 24, 2011

Kit Getting Ready to Leave...


This Belite kit is getting ready to leave our workshop.  This is a tack welded fuselage, aluminum spars and ribs, flaperons, and all kinds of fittings, hardware, and goodies.  This one is scheduled to ship in a couple of weeks.  The next available kit shipment slot is in April.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

An Ultralight Does Wingovers? Four Belites in a row?

Welcome, Kitplanes readers!  I hope you've enjoyed reading the excellent article on Belite in April's cover article.

Tonight's a multimedia night on this blog...  pics and video.  The best pic is the very last one.

We had a day of great flying weather -- a little crosswind -- I compensated by ignoring the crosswind, then by landing diagonally across the runway.  You can see that in the video clip I've posted in this post.

First, a great photo taken by Gene Stratton:


The Belite Trike airplane in the pic is ready for customer delivery, with the customer arriving tomorrow to take it home.

Ultralight Aircraft For Sale!  Next up, a Belite 254 with 28HP CRE engine, with really wonderful fat tundra tires.  Ultralight legal at 250 pounds, as pictured, including the tires.  Includes a nice instrument panel and you can buy it now.!



And here's a plane which is going to our south coast dealer, Joe Chlup.  It's got really light wheels on it, as it is destined to be a sea plane very soon!


So let's line up four Belites in a row...


The closest plane is currently featured (April 2011) on the cover of Kitplanes magazine.

So let's hop in that plane, attach a camera to the top of the wing, and take a video, OK?

I did exactly that.  Here's a video on Youtube showing startup to landing of the Belite Superlite.

It shows the fun I have in the airplane:  wingovers (sort of), tight turns, quick takeoffs, and spot landings.

I saved the best picture for last.  Here's the little yellow trike, entering the flare:


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Monday, February 21, 2011

Kitplanes publishes lengthy review and cover article on Belite

Finally, the Kitplanes article on Belite has been published!!!

They gave us the cover of the magazine!!!



Mark Cook wrote an editorial on us and on the rebirth of ultralights!!!

Ed Wischmeyer wrote an awesome article...  8 beautiful pages on our airplanes!!!

AOPA chief photographer Mike Fizer did all of the pictures, including ground and air to air!!!

Yeah, I'm kind of excited.

And I just sold a kit....   subscribers are receiving the new April issue right now.

You can buy the article by going here:

http://www.kitplanes.com/issues/28_4/flight_reports/Flight_Review_Belite_9497-1.phtml

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Bill of Materials for an Ultralight Aircraft carbon fiber wing kit

If you are looking to build a FAR Part 103 legal ultalight aircraft, such are Belite 254, you will want to know what comes in the kit.  This particular post covers the wing kit, which is the starting point for most projects.  A photo is at the bottom of this post.

Here's an itemized list of what you get:

a) 4 Carbon Fiber wing spars.  The load carrying part of the wing.

b) 10 Aluminum Ribs.  5 used on each wing.  They slip over the spars and are glued in place.  The glue acts as a corrosion barrier in the area of the glue joint. 

c) 4 Birch CNC cut wooden ribs (used as end cap ribs on wing).  These work better than aluminum for end caps, due to the ease of fabric attachment.  They should be epoxied or stained, so they will last a long time.

d) 0.75" x 0.035" 6061-T6 aluminum tubing, used as sail/anti-sail braces.  You cut them to length and crimp the ends of them in a vise (using blocks of wood).

e) 2 push-pull cables, low friction.  They go to the flaperons and thread out the wing, for routing to the aircraft controls.  (Flaperons are not included.)

f) 4 machined CNC 6061-T6 aluminum strut attachment fittings, for attachment to carbon fiber tubing.  They are connected to the carbon fiber spars using carbon fiber sleeves.  A corrosion barrier of flexible epoxy is used to bond the aluminum to the carbon fiber.  We do this for you!  (NOTE:  aluminum spars DO NOT use these strut attachment fittings, they use a different strut attachment methodology, not pictured)

g) 10 10" x 0.5" .025 6061-T6 aluminum straps, used for attaching ribs to front spar.  Two rivets attach to the bottom of the rib, the strap rolls around the front of the spar, then two rivets on the top of the rib.

h) 6 channel 6061-T6 right angle aluminum, for flaperon atachment.  These bolt to the ribs, and also accept the flaperons, when you install them later.

i) 36 false ribs, constructed of CNC cut plywood.  These slip through the 'false rib spar', which is 0.5" aluminum tubing.  They are then glued in place.

j) 4 root spar doublers (2.75" x 0.125 wall x 1.50" length).  These slip over the root of each tube, and are epoxied and riveted in place.

k) Plastic pitot tubing line, runs from pitot tube to your airspeed indicator.

l) Bent aluminum pitot tube  (straight pitot tube also available).

m) left and right machined CNC 6061-T6 flaperon dropper brackets.  They bolt to a rib.

n) 5 various aluminum trim pieces (0.016" 6061T6).  These go around flaperon cable exit points, etc.

o) 4 CNC cut 6061-T6 jury strut attachment fittings.

p) 6 0.75" square x 0.035 6061T6 hard point attachment tubes (for sail/anti-sail attachment).  These rivet to the aluminum ribs, and bolt to the sail / anti-sail tubes.

q) 6 trim pieces for flaperon right angle trim (0.016" 6061T6).  These go around the right angle pieces.

r) 24+ feet of prebent trailing edge aluminum.  These rivet to each rib.

s) 24 feet of 0.50" x 0.035" 6061T6 aluminum tubing, for false rib spars.  These slip through all the ribs and false ribs.

t) Blue print for wing.  Accurate measurements for the entire wing.

u) 5 bags of hardware, with all rivets, AN nuts, bolts & washers.

This is EVERYTHING you need to build two wings, with the exception of glue, fabric and tools.

WING KIT with aluminum spars --- $1430.
WING KIT with Carbon Fiber spars --- $3630.

Crating on a wing kit is $150.

Truck delivery to your location is by quotation.  Let us know where you are and we'll get a quote to you right away!

Here's another photo of that wing kit: