Belite formally introduces UK SSDR ultralight aircraft

We've just announced a UK aircraft:  A "SSDR".

Hi res photos can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beliteaircraft/ where you can see a new set  of photos labeled SSDR
 
The website has a lot of information, www.beliteaircraft.com


And here's some additional comments from James:

The plane that we produce weighs less than 101KG, and the wing area is 10.1 square meters.  It comes with the following features:


* Carbon Fiber wing spars
* Aluminium internal ribs
* ChromAlloy steel fuselage -- the operator is surrounded by super strong 4130 aircraft steel, helping protect significantly in the event of an accident
* Very basic instrumentation:  Airspeed Indicator;  Engine EGT/CHT; Engine kill switch
* 28HP engine with wood prop (pull start)
* 5" Wheels with lightweight tyres
* Full windshield
* Enhanced wing span -- 26' 2"

We have a price (available for a limited amount period of time) of £15000, FOB Wichita, KS.

The plane, as delivered, has a 5 gallon gas tank.  In addition to being a legal SSDR, this makes it legal as a US FAR Part 103 Ultralight Aircraft as well, which aids our flight test procedures.  The tank capacity may be increased to a larger size, after delivery to England, at the option of the buyer, as long as weight limitations are observed.

The plane is light as a feather and very maneuverable.  It is a joy to fly.

You could have received first word of this announcement, by doing these two things:

Sign up for Belite Aircraft's announcements here.

Sign up for James Wiebe's twitters here.

Notes about James Wiebe and Belite Aircraft

Please subscribe to Belite Aircraft here.  You'll get our news releases and announcements.

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I am a serial entrepreneur. I started a computer company, specializing in
storage devices. The company developed a very successful niche in computer
forensics, and I became heavily involved in selling and supporting our products
to the federal government. My largest customer was the FBI, although I had

Cantilever (no struts) Carbon Fiber Wing shows greater than -4G test load

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Please follow James' tweets here.  You'll receive advance peeks as to what James and Belite are doing.

Belite R&D Ultralight Aircraft sneek peak:

Here's what you can do with a one-off carbon fiber / titanium wing design (combined with some great chromaloy steel work on the fuselage).

What I am showing you is a Belite research project:  a fully cantilevered, strutless wing design, built using a 24 pound carry through carbon fiber spar (a fully custom, 4 inch diameter monster carbon fiber tube, with about

UK and Ultralights

Interested in a British legal SSDR ultralight aircraft?  You can sign up here for our upcoming formal product announcements.

But before the formal product announcement comes out, I wanted to talk to you, my loyal blog readers, about a substantial upcoming addition to Belite's aircraft lineup.  It incorporates a significant design change, resulting in lower takeoff and landing speeds, along with increased climb performance.

It looks like this:

What's different about this Belite?  It has lower weight, and a bigger wing.

Installing a gas tank in an ultralight aircraft (such as the FAR Part 103 Belite!)

Another easy task is mounting our 5 gallon, spun aluminum gas tank in our ultralight aircraft, the FAR Part 103 Belite aircraft.  These tanks weigh less than 5 pounds, are extremely rugged, and are painless to mount and use.  They are clearly preferable to heavy plastic tanks used on certain earlier ultralight aircraft.

(If you are new to this blog, you'll find several other detailed construction posts on other topics [such as building carbon fiber wings].  Just poke around the search box until you find them.)

The major component of this tank installation is the aluminum tank.  We use an off the shelf 'dune buggy' style tank.  They are available from many different vendors online.

Before starting installation, consider the usage of a fuel sender -- this requires tank modification before

Attaching Flaperons to an Ultralight Aircraft (such as the FAR Part 103 Belite Aircraft)

I hope you've had a great Christmas season!

In this continuing online assembly manual, we'll attach our flaperons to the wings of our ultralight aircraft, the FAR Part 103 compliant Belite.    This assembly procedure is designed for our Belite aircraft, but the procedure is educational for any ultralight aircraft builder.

This is easy:  all we need to do is to clamp the flaperons in place using vise-grips; a couple of alignment templates make accurate alignment very easy.  After everything is lined up, the flaperons are bolted in place using AN3 hardware (bolt, washers, nylok nuts).

Here's the view looking down the flaperon, with three vise-grips already in place.

Belite Batteries demonstrate their power!

There are many things to do in preparation for the first public showing of our electric airplane. 

(I call the plane the Electric Lite.)

One item on the preparation list is a battery test.

There's nothing like a bunch of very high capacity lithium batteries to put smoke into a building when showing their power during a discharge test.  That's exactly what happened when we first tested our batteries, about a year ago.  Here's the video we made at the time, which has never before been seen or posted:

Some of the technical details of this battery test are contained within the video.

It's not much to look at -- just batteries, enormous dummy load resistors, a lot of smoke, and a room that got warmer and warmer as the test progressed.  But maybe, just maybe, you'll enjoy looking at it and wondering:  what is Belite up to?

Please watch and enjoy!

If you want to receive formal information from Belite on our electric airplane, you must register here.

If you are interested in partnering with Belite in electric aircraft development, please correspond with me directly:  james at beliteaircraft dot com

Sneak Pictures of Belite's Batteries

Earlier today, I had a conversation with my marketing manager, Kathy.  She also happens to be my wife and business partner.

"I think I'd like to start posting some more information on my blog concerning our electric airplane design," I said.  "But I won't really release any information -- I'll just create some teasing posts which show elements of our design.  Then, when we're ready to announce our progress more formally, we'll hopefully have more people attuned to what's coming."

Kathy said that sounded like a fine idea.

So, without further ado, here is a photo of a battery pack I found lying around our production facility:

LiFe04 Battery Assembly at Belite Enterprises

This particular battery is part of an electric battery system with the following selected characteristics:

Magazine Does a Photoshoot of Superlite

I enjoyed the experience of being a part of an aircraft photoshoot. It's even more interesting when you're flying an ultralight aircraft!

The photo session had several parts:

a)  Some fly-bys, down the runway, to the left and the right of the photographer.  My objective was to keep the wheels one feet off the runway, and to keep a wingtip over his head as I passed by.  I was free to start a pullup when I was within 100 feet of him.

Building a Carbon Fiber Wing with Aluminum Ribs - Part 2

Please subscribe to Belite's news updates here.  You'll receive our customer mailings and news announcements. 


Please follow James' tweets here.  You'll receive advance peeks as to what James and Belite are doing.
This is the second part on our online tutorial of how to build a carbon fiber wing.

Our objective is to have a truly great ultralight aircraft - our FAR Part 103 Belite Aircraft.

The first part of this assembly document may be found by going to this link. 

I have completed my online updates to this wing assembly manual.  Further updates may be obtained by purchasing a kit, and receiving the printed wing assembly manual.
Building a Carbon Fiber Wing with Aluminum Ribs - Part 2

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16.  Installing the Sail / Anti-sail tubes

The photos in this section show the sail / anti-sail tubes without Zinc Phosphate primer.  The primer will be