The Sea Storm is an Italian

homebuilt Homebuilt machines are machines built outside of specialised workshops or factories. This can include different things such as kit cars or homebuilt computers, but normally it pertains to homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or ...

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...

that was designed and produced by Storm Aircraft of

Sabaudia Sabaudia is a coastal town on the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the province of Latina, Lazio, in central Italy. Sabaudia's centre is characterised by several examples of Fascist architecture, as it was one of several towns built in the 1930s built on land ...

. Storm Aircraft was originally called ''SG Aviation srl''. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 245. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The Sea Storm features a cantilever

shoulder-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 wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...

, a two-seats-in-

side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

, with four seats optional, an enclosed cockpit under a hinged canopy, retractable

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft Landing gear, undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the Center of gravity of an aircraft, center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail ...

and a single engine in

pusher configuration In aeronautical and naval engineering, pusher configuration is the term used to describe a drivetrain of air- or watercraft with propulsion device(s) after the engine(s). This is in contrast to the more conventional tractor configuration, wh ...

. There are two small airfoil sponsons for water balance mounted low on the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

. The aircraft has a highly swept fin and rudder. The aircraft wings are made from

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

sheet with some

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

parts, while the hull is composite. Its span wing mounts large flaps and has a wing area of . The cabin width is . The acceptable power range is and the standard engine used is the

Lycoming O-235 The Lycoming O-235 is a family of four-cylinder, air-cooled, horizontally opposed, piston aircraft engines that produce , derived from the earlier O-233 engine.Textron Lycoming: ''Operator's Manual, Textron Lycoming Aircraft Engines, Series O-2 ...

powerplant. The Sea Storm has a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for pilot, passenger and baggage is . The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off on land with a engine is and the landing roll is . On the water the take-off run is and the landing run is for the two place version. The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit as 700 hours or 550 hours from the quick-build kit.

Operational history

By 1998 the company reported that 25 kits had been sold and 12 aircraft were completed and flying. In February 2014 one example was

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

, although two had been registered at one time.

Specifications (Sea Storm)

References

External links

Photo of the two seat versionPhoto of the four seat version
{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation Sea Storm 1990s Italian sport aircraft 1990s Italian ultralight aircraft 1990s Italian civil utility aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Shoulder-wing aircraft Homebuilt aircraft