The Polaris FIB ("Flying Inflatable Boat") is an Italian flying boat

ultralight trike An ultralight trike 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 fuselage pod driven ...

, that was designed and produced by

Polaris Motor Polaris Motor srl was an Italian aircraft manufacturer based in Gubbio. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of ultralight trikes and was known for its inflatable boat trikes.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World D ...

Gubbio Gubbio () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia ( Umbria). It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines. History The city's origins are very ancie ...

. The aircraft was introduced in the mid-1980s and remained in production until about 2014. It was supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 218. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485XBertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 107. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485X It is now produced by New Polaris 2020 S.L. of

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

Design and development

The FIB complies with the

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The (; FAI; en, World Air Sports Federation) 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 mainta ...

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 aile ...

category, including the category's maximum gross weight of . The FIB has a maximum gross weight of . The aircraft features a cable-braced

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sports, air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or Composite ma ...

-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 planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing conf ...

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

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

open cockpit, an

inflatable boat An inflatable boat is a lightweight boat constructed with its sides and bow made of flexible tubes containing pressurised gas. For smaller boats, the floor and hull is often flexible, while for boats longer than , the floor typically consists ...

hull and a single engine in

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in no ...

. The FIB has no wheeled

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Marti ...

, but as a result of customer demand it was later developed into the amphibious

Polaris AM-FIB The Polaris AM-FIB ("Amphibious Flying Inflatable Boat") is an Italian amphibious flying boat ultralight trike, that was designed and produced by Polaris Motor of Gubbio. The aircraft was introduced in 2003 and was supplied as a complete ...

. The FIB's single surface wing is made from bolted-together

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It h ...

tubing and 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 food ...

sailcloth. The span wing is supported by a single tube-type

kingpost A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above f ...

and uses an "A" frame weight-shift control bar. The powerplant is 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 (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

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

engine. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload is . The company continued to develop the design and in 2010 introduced a new hull shape to increase performance in the water and in the air. Dimitri Delemarie, writing in ''The World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', said of the design, "It will never win any speed records, but if there were an award for fun, it would be right up there at the top."

Operational history

The FIB is used by a number of government operators, including police and coastguards.

Variants

In the early 2000s the company offered a version with the same wing, but without a boat hull, using a conventional minimalist trike frame mounted on wheeled

or optionally

ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...

s. Even though it did not have a boat hull it was still marketed under the FIB name.

Specifications (FIB)

References

External links

* {{Polaris Motor aircraft 1980s Italian sport aircraft 1980s Italian ultralight aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Ultralight trikes