The Kolb Ultrastar is an American single seat, high wing,
strut-braced, single engine,
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 ...
,
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 ...
-equipped
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 produced in kit form by
Kolb Aircraft of
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
Phoenixville is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia at the junction of French Creek (Schuylkill River tributary), French Creek an ...
and intended for
amateur construction.
[Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page E-21. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. ]
The Ultrastar was the second design produced by
Kolb Aircraft, was a redesigned and improved
Kolb Flyer and succeeded the Flyer in production.
Design and development
The Ultrastar features a completely open cockpit with the pilot exposed to the slipstream. Unusually for this period in aircraft history when most ultralights had two-axis control, the Ultrastar has standard three-axis controls, including full span
aileron
An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...
s.
When the original Flyer was designed there were no suitable lightweight engines available, so the Flyer first fitted two
Chrysler
FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...
powerplants and later two
Solo 209 engines. With the advent of better engines the Ultrastar moved to a single
Cuyuna 430
The Cuyuna 430 and Cuyuna 340 are a family of two-stroke, twin-cylinder piston snowmobile engines that were redesigned to serve as ultralight aircraft powerplants.Cuyuna Development Company: ''Cuyuna Engines'', Cuyuna Development Company, undat ...
engine producing .
The design features a forward
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 ...
of welded
4130 steel tubing, mated to an
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 ...
tailboom. The
horizontal stabilizer
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lifting surface located on the tail ( empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...
,
tail fin and wings are also constructed of riveted aluminum tubing with all flying surfaces covered in doped
aircraft fabric. The Ultrastar introduced the trademark folding wings and tail that became a feature of future Kolb designs.
Like the Flyer, the Ultrastar's conventional landing gear consists of sprung steel tubing for the main gear but replaced the Flyer's sprung tail skid with a steerable sprung tail wheel instead.
Variants
;Ultrastar
:Original model
;Ultrastar KX430
:Improved model with simplified steel tubular pilot cage and main landing gear tubular spring suspension
Specifications (Ultrastar)
See also
References
External links
Photo of Kolb UltrastarPhoto of Kolb Ultrastar
{{Kolb Aircraft
Ultrastar
''UltraStar'' is a clone of ''SingStar'', a music video game by Polish developer Patryk "Covus5" Cebula. ''UltraStar'' lets one or several players score points by singing along to a song or music video and match the pitch (music), pitch of the ...
1980s United States ultralight aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear