closeups of 4 stroke engine on Belite ultralight aircraft

I leave for Sun N Fun tomorrow - Sunday.  If you want to follow my show twitters, please find me on Twitter, you can find me on twitter, search for (and subscribe to):  jamespwiebe.  I will be tweeting every day with what's going on, when I'm flying, what we have announced, etc.  Fun!!

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Belite Ultralight Aircraft (Tricycle Gear) with 4 Stroke Motor

We are now flying a Belite Trike with a 4 stroke engine.  You can see it at Sun N Fun!  Here's some more closeup pics of the Verner Motors 4 stroke engine, mounted on our Belite Ultralight Aircraft. 

Working so hard, with something to show for it (a 4 stroke engine too)

I'll be 'twittering' during Sun N Fun.  If you want daily ultralight aircraft info, sign up for my twitter feeds.  I'm jamespwiebe on twitter.

Also, you'll get our news releases by subscribing on our website.

We've been getting ready for Sun N Fun, and we're excited:  In addition to a ton of new avionics, and a major avionics announcement, we'll have a Belite Trike with a 4 stroke engine installed up front.  Yes, a tricycle gear ultralight aircraft with a reliable, quiet, fuel efficient four stroke!

Here's some photos of the 4 Stroke Belite Trike, taken during a test flight.  I've posted some further comments below the pics.

4 Stroke Ultralight Aircraft

Rolling into a crosswind at takeoff!

The photos were all taken by Gene Stratton, and they look superb.  The airplane (and attention to detail which we put into it) are also superb.  The paint job looks nearly liquid.

Here's some questions and answers:

1)  What kind of engine is it?  It's a two cylinder water cooled 4 stroke. It's from Verner Motors in Czechoslovakia, and it's a JCV 360.  I'll talk more about the engine in a future post, soon.

2)  What type of aircraft is it?  Why, it's a Belite Trike, featuring our new enhanced wingspan (26' 2") and enhanced wing area, thus improving climb and stall speed.  The paint job is Stewart Systems Cub Yellow, and it looks absolutely marvelous.  Please come see it at Sun N Fun!

3)  Is it available as a kit, or assembled, RTF?  Yes, both ways! 

4)  Is it quiet?  YES!

5)  Can it meet ultralight weight?  YES!  You have to build it with our carbon fiber spars and other weight saving options, but it will legally meet weight.

6)  Can it be built at a taildragger?  YES!  In fact, we had our sister aircraft featured on the front cover of Kitplanes in the April 2011 issue.

Here's a closeup of the engine.  You can see the water cooler and the oil cooler is hidden below.  I'll have more photos of the engine installation in a future post.

And yes, it will have a nice cowl on it at Sun N Fun.

See you at Sun N Fun!

White Paint sparkles on Belite Ultralight Aircraft

I needed to take some pics from the airplane today.  The weather cooperated as temperatures hit the high 70's while the strong morning winds quieted down to a comfortable crosswind by mid afternoon.

The reliable Hirth started on the second or third pull, and I was soon airborne, flying in our Superlite Dragon.


Gene had pulled Joe's new plane out of the hangar, and as I passed over the top, I just thought it was one of the nicest views of the top side of a Belite that I'd ever seen.  So I started snapping pics.


Here's a nice one, looking nearly straight down.

Belite Ultralight Aircraft

The pictured aircraft has painted Insignia White using Stewart Systems products.

Belite Makes Significant Investment in CNC and Shop Automation Equipment

We've recently received several new pieces of equipment which we are using to improve our product and enhance our ability to build state of the art ultralight aircraft, such as our FAR Part 103 Belite 254.

We recently installed our new Roland DGA MDA 540 4-axis prototype milling machine.  This incredible machine can take a chunk of just about anything that's solid and convert it into a part.  It loves lexan, plastic, wood, and aluminum.

I happen to be working on many new avionics designs (to be introduced at Sun N Fun) and, as part of that project, I needed to turn a new bezel concept from idea to reality in less than 24 hours.

The new machine performed wonderfully, turning a solid block of Lexan into a bezel.  Here's a photo of the machined Lexan block:

After cutting the part out and painting it, the new bezel design looks like this:

The conversation with the SolidWorks designer started at 9:00am, the new part was out of the machine by 7:00pm.  (The joys of being in a small, nimble company with good design tools and equipment available!)

We've also purchased a ShopBot CNC router for large flat pieces.  New computer equipment and software (EG SolidWorks) complete the company upgrades.  The ShopBot isn't running yet, but will be in the near future.

Comments on Ultralight Aircraft from a Kitplanes reader...

Here are some unfiltered comments on our ultalight aircraft that I received via email earlier today.  This person had read the recent cover article on "Kitplanes" on Belite:

"I hope you are getting some good results from the article. Way back when, I was also on of those guys that looked at ultralights with distain. 

... I still think the KitFox Light was a delightful plane to fly even when compared to many non ultralight planes. 

To say the BeLite is a nice flying for an ultralight does not do it justice. It simply handles like a good airplane should, regardless of the weight. 

The only problem with the BeLite is if someone gets hooked on ultralights because of it, and then tries to fly one of the “lawn chair” type machines, it will scare them to death."

Belite manufactures Part 103 compliant ultralight aircraft.

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.

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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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