The Hummel Ultracruiser (also variously called the Ultra Cruiser and UltraCruiser) is an American amateur-built aircraft, designed by Morry Hummel and produced by Hummel Aviation. The aircraft is supplied as a kit or plans for amateur construction or as a complete ready-to-fly aircraft.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 56. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 111. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The Ultracruiser is a development of the heavier

Hummel Bird The Hummel Bird is an experimental/amateur built aircraft designed by Morry Hummel and produced by Hummel Aviation of Byran, Ohio, United States. It is a single-seat, single-engine, all-metal airplane typically powered by a 1/2 VW engine in the ...

, designed to comply with 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, including the category's maximum empty weight of . The aircraft has a standard empty weight of . The Ultracruiser features a cantilever

low-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, or optionally enclosed, cockpit that is wide, fixed

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 ...

, or optionally

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 made from sheet

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 ...

. Its span wing employs a Harry C. Riblett GA30-618

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...

and has an area of . The aircraft's recommended engine power range is and standard engines used include the 1/2 VW

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 ...

powerplant. Construction time from the supplied kit is estimated as 420 hours.

Operational history

By December 2011 100 examples had been completed and flown.

Variants

;Ultracruiser :Base model for the US

category, powered by a 1/2 VW. ;Ultracruiser Plus :Model for larger and heavier pilots, powered by a

Volkswagen air-cooled engine The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an Air-cooled engine, air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinder (engine), cylinders, cast aluminum alloy cylinder heads and pistons, magnesium-alloy crankca ...

, for the US experimental amateur-built category.

Specifications (Ultracruiser)

References

External links

* {{Hummel Aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Ultralight aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Hummel Aviation aircraft