Capella Aircraft Corporation was an American

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. Formed about 1988, the company specialized in the design and manufacture of

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a Maximum Takeoff Weight, maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are use ...

in the form of kits for amateur construction, including for the US

FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles Ultralight aircraft exist outside of the United States. In most countries, ultralights are a class of aircraft. A completely different legal concept is valid within the USA. The FAA makes explicitly clear that ultralight vehicles are not air ...

rules. The company went out of business about 2007.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page B-33, B-105. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. Downey, Julia: ''1999 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 15, Number 12, December 1998, page 40. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook'', page 135-137 & 347. BAI Communications. Capella produced a number of aircraft designs, all of a

strut-braced In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of struts, which act in ...

high wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft (in which a r ...

configuration. The first series were all enclosed cockpit designs, starting with the Capella SS, a single seat model introduced in 1988. In 1990 the Capella XS two-seat

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 ...

model followed, along with a

tricycle 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 ...

model, the Capella XLS. The Capella Fastback was introduced in 1995. In 1998 the open cockpit single-seat Capella Javelin I was introduced as a FAR 103 ultralight. This was followed by the Capella Javelin II the same year and finally the Capella T-Raptor, all variants of the basic Javelin design.

Aircraft

References

{{Capella Aircraft Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft