The Air Creation Skypper is a French

ultralight trike An ultralight trike or paratrike is a type of powered hang glider where flight control is by weight-shift control, weight-shift. These light-sport aircraft, aircraft have a fabric Rogallo wing, flex-wing from which is suspended a tricycle fusel ...

, designed and produced by Air Creation of

Aubenas Aubenas (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the southern part of the Ardèche Departments of France, department in Southern France. It is the seat of several government offices. The mountainous and rugged countryside is popular for vacation ...

. The aircraft was introduced in 2011 and is supplied complete and ready-to-fly.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 200. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X

Design and development

The Skypper was designed as a simpler, lighter and less expensive carriage than the top-of-the line Air Creation Tanarg, to replace the

Air Creation GT The Air Creation GT and Clipper are a series of France, French two-seat flying wing ultralight trikes that was designed and produced by Air Creation.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page C-3. Cybair Limited Publi ...

series in production. It was intended to comply with the

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The World Air Sports Federation (; FAI) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintains worl ...

microlight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

category. It features a cable-braced

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

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

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

tandem 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 ...

, open cockpit,

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...

with wheel pants 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 ...

. The aircraft is made from bolted-together

aluminium 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 ...

tubing, with its double surface wing covered in

Dacron Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods ...

sailcloth. The wing is supported by a single tube-type kingpost and uses an "A" frame weight-shift control bar. Available powerplants include the a twin cylinder, liquid-cooled,

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a four-stroke engine which re ...

dual-ignition Dual Ignition is a system for spark-ignition engines, whereby critical ignition components, such as spark plugs and magnetos, are duplicated. Dual ignition is most commonly employed on aero engines,Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, ...

Rotax 582 The Rotax 582 is a two-stroke cycle, two-stroke, two-cylinder, rotary intake valve, oil-in-fuel or oil injection pump, liquid-cooled, gear reduction-drive aircraft engine manufactured by Rotax, BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG. It is for use in non-ce ...

engine, 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 directio ...

, dual-ignition

Rotax 912UL The Rotax 912 is a flat-four engine, horizontally-opposed four-cylinder, naturally-aspirated, four-stroke engine, four-stroke aircraft engine with a Propeller speed reduction unit, reduction gearbox. It features Radiator (engine cooling), l ...

or Rotax 912ULS engine and the twin cylinder, air-cooled, four-stroke,

HKS 700E. With the Rotax 582 the aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload is . A number of different wings can be fitted to the basic carriage, including the Air Creation NuviX, Fun 450, iFun 16, iXess 13 and the BioniX.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 218. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. When equipped with the Bionix wing and Rotax 912 engine the Skypper was

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

6,300 cheaper than the more sophisticated Air Creation Tanarg with the same engine and wing, in 2011.

Specifications (Skypper 582 NuviX)

References

External links

Official Skypper 912 websiteOfficial Skypper 582 website
{{Air Creation aircraft 2010s French sport aircraft 2010s French ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Ultralight trikes High-wing aircraft Skypper