The Stellar Astra is an American ultralight trike that was designed by Allistair Wilson and produced by Stellar Aircraft of Bloomfield, Indiana. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft. As of 2013 the company appears to be out of business and production complete.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 222. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X

Design and development

The Astra was derived from a

P&M Aviation P&M Aviation was a British aircraft manufacturer, specializing in ultralight trikes, founded in 2003. The company was purchased by Albatross Flying Systems in 2019. History The company was formed in 2003 by Keith Duckworth's purchase of tw ...

trike design and intended to comply with the US

light-sport aircraft A light-sport aircraft (LSA), or light sport aircraft, is a fairly new category of small, lightweight aircraft that are simple to fly. LSAs tend to be heavier and more sophisticated than ultralight (aka "microlight") aircraft, but LSA restrictio ...

category, although it does not appear on the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

's accepted LSA list. The Astra features a cable-braced hang glider-style

high-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing conf ...

, weight-shift controls, a two-seats-in-

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

open cockpit with a cockpit fairing, tricycle landing gear with wheel pants and a single engine in pusher configuration. The aircraft is made from bolted-together

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It h ...

tubing, with its double surface wing covered in Dacron sailcloth. Its span wing is supported by a single tube-type kingpost and uses an "A" frame weight-shift control bar. Powerplants that were factory available were the twin cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke, dual-ignition

Rotax 503 The Rotax 503 is a , inline 2-cylinder, two-stroke aircraft engine, built by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG of Austria for use in ultralight aircraft.Raisner, William: ''LEAF catlog'', pages 6-105. Leading Edge Airfoils, 1995. As of 2011 the R ...

, the four cylinder, air and liquid-cooled,

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either direct ...

, dual-ignition Rotax 912UL and Rotax 912ULS and the twin cylinder, air-cooled, four-stroke, dual-ignition HKS 700E engine. With the HKS powerplant the aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . The aircraft was produced under contract for Stellar Aircraft in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

by Albatross Flying Systems, who also marketed the design in Asia as the ''Cruiser''.

Specifications (Astra)

References

{{reflist

External links

Company website archives
at

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

Photo of the Stellar Astra
2000s United States sport aircraft 2000s United States ultralight aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Ultralight trikes