The Chotia Woodhopper is an American

ultralight aircraft 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 Aircraft flight control system, conventional three-a ...

that was designed by John Chotia and made available in the form of plans for amateur construction. The plans remain available from the Vintage Ultralight and Lightplane Association.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page E-45. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001.

Design and development

The Woodhopper was a development of the highly successful Weedhopper, substituting wood for

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 ...

tubing wherever possible and simplifying the design to reduce cost. It is therefore essentially a wooden Weedhopper. Both aircraft pre-dated 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, but comply with them, including the category's maximum empty weight of . The Woodhopper has a standard empty weight of . It features a cable-braced

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 ...

, a single-seat, 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 ...

and a single engine in

tractor configuration In aviation, a tractor configuration is a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft with its engine mounted with the propeller in front, so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. This is the usual configuration; the pusher configuration ...

. The aircraft is of mixed construction and is optimized for low cost and ease of building. The pilot cage,

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

and kingpost are made from aluminum tubing, while the main

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 ...

keel, wings and tail surfaces are all wooden structures. The Woodhopper's flying surfaces are covered in doped

aircraft fabric Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures. The de Havilland Mosquito is an example of this technique, as are ...

. Its span wing is cable-braced from the single, tube-style kingpost and the whole airframe is liberally supported with a large number of steel cables. The control system is two-axis and consists of a

sidestick A side-stick or sidestick controller is an aircraft control stick that is located on the side console of the Aviator, pilot, usually on the righthand side, or outboard on a two-seat Cockpit (aviation), flightdeck. Typically this is found in air ...

that moves longitudinally to control the

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

for pitch and laterally to actuate the rudder for yaw control. Roll is induced by yaw-roll coupling as a result of the wing's dihedral. This control system does not allow crosswind landings, but it does make learning to fly the aircraft easy and also greatly simplifies the construction of the wing, as it has no control surfaces on it. The Woodhopper can be flown on wheels and floats. The Woodhopper was featured on the cover of

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (often abbreviated as ''PM'' or ''PopMech'') is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do it yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation an ...

in 1978, and as a result a large number of plans were sold and many aircraft were completed and flown. Construction time from the plans is estimated at 250–300 hours. Performance is determined by the engine fitted, and a wide variety of small

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 ...

engines have been employed. The Woodhopper was later developed into the

Gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

Specifications (Woodhopper)

References

External links

Photo of a Woodhopper
{{John Chotia aircraft designs Vintage Ultralight and Lightplane Association aircraft 1970s United States ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft