The Sorrell Hiperlight is a family of single and two seat,

negative stagger In aviation, stagger is the relative horizontal fore-aft positioning of stacked wings in a biplane, triplane, or multiplane. An aircraft is said to have ''positive stagger'', or simply ''stagger'', when the upper wing is positioned forward of ...

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

s, designed for amateur construction.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2011 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 72. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page B-30 and B-83. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. Downey, Julia: ''1999 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 15, Number 12, December 1998, page 69. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Downey, Julia: ''2002 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 18, Number 12, December 2001, page 69. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Downey, Julia: ''2008 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 24, Number 12, December 2007, page 75. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851 The design was sold initially by Sunrise Aircraft of

Sheridan, Oregon Sheridan is a city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. Platted in the 1860s when it received a post office, Sheridan was incorporated in 1880. In 1913, much of the town burned in a fire and a flood covered much of the community in 1964. The ...

and as of May 2022 was produced by Thunderbird Aviation of

Ray, Michigan Ray is an unincorporated community in both Steuben County, Indiana and Branch County, Michigan in the United States. Located along the local "State Line Road," the small community straddles the border between the two states. The Indiana Northe ...

Development

The single seat SNS-8 Hiperlight was designed by the Sorrell brothers in 1982 at the request of the US

Rotax Rotax is the brand name for a range of internal combustion engines developed and manufactured by the Austrian company BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG (until 2016 BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co. KG), in turn owned by the Canadian Bombardier Recreational Prod ...

engine distributor to provide an enclosed cockpit aircraft design to utilize the

Rotax 277 The Rotax 277 is a , Single-cylinder engine, single-cylinder, two-stroke aircraft engine, that was built by Rotax, BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG of Austria for use in ultralight aircraft.Raisner, William: ''LEAF catalog'', pages 6-105. Leading Edge ...

engine. The resulting aircraft was a scaled-down version of the very successful

Sorrell Hiperbipe The Sorrell SNS-7 Hiperbipe is a two-seat, negative stagger, conventional landing gear-equipped cabin biplane designed for amateur construction that was produced in kit form by Sorrell Aviation of Tenino, Washington and since 2015 by Thunderb ...

aerobatic cabin biplane and with an empty weight of fit the US ultralight category. The series designation of "SNS" stands for ''Sorrell Negative Stagger''. The aircraft is described as easy to fly, with light control forces and well balanced controls. The aircraft has full-span

ailerons 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 around ...

on the bottom wing that droop together when the stick is pulled back, giving the same effect as flaps in the landing flare. is sufficient to power the design and it does not require larger engines. Since the Rotax 277 has been out of production for many years engines such as the

2si 460 The 2si 460 is a family of in-line twin-cylinder, two-stroke, single ignition, aircraft engines that were designed for ultralight aircraft.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page G-2 Cybair Limited Publishing, 20 ...

Hirth F-33 The Hirth F-33 is a Single cylinder engine, single cylinder, two stroke, carburetor, carburetted aircraft engine designed for use on ultralight aircraft, including Powered paragliding, powered paragliders and ultralight trikes. the engine is n ...

are often used.

Design

The aircraft features a welded steel tube 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 ...

, with a detachable

aluminium 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 ...

tube aft fuselage. The rear fuselage can be easily removed for transport or storage in ten minutes. The wings are also constructed from aluminium tubes and the whole aircraft is covered in

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 ...

. The SNS-8 has a maximum pilot weight of . The SNS-8 kit was estimated as taking 200–300 hours to assemble. Sunrise Aircraft developed the single seat SNS-8 into the SNS-9 two-seater. The SNS-9 is minimally larger with a wingspan of versus the SNS-8's , length increased from to and gross weight increased from to . The SNS-9 uses the

Rotax 503 The Rotax 503 is a , inline 2-cylinder, two-stroke engine, two-stroke aircraft engine, built by Rotax, BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG of Austria for use in ultralight aircraft.Raisner, William: ''LEAF catalog'', pp. 6-105. Leading Edge Airfoils, 1 ...

as its standard powerplant and had an optional

Wankel engine The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric (mechanism), eccentric Pistonless rotary engine, rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. The concept was proven by German engineer Felix Wankel, f ...

available.

Variants

;SNS-8 :Single seat version ;SNS-9 :Two seat version ;Hiperlight EXP ;EXP II

Specifications (SNS-8)

References

External links

*
Thunderbird Aviation archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...