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At one time in the mid 80's FAA showed up at one of the air shows with a
set of weigh scales and started weighing Part 103 ultralights.
Manufacturers scrambled to loose weight, removing seat cushions,
changing out wheels, getting rid of brakes and instruments etc.
Rumor has it some even went so far as to install dummy ballistic
parachutes on their planes to take advantage of the parachute chute
allowance. 27 years later some manufacturers are again looking for
ways to loose weight, and in fact are now designing aircraft
specifically to fit into Part 103 with room to spare.
Buckeye Aviation of Argos Indiana introduced the Buckeye Dragonfly at
Airventure 2007. The idea behind the Dragonfly was produce a strong,
lightweight, dependable, affordable single place ultralight aircraft.
One of the ways of accomplishing this was to start from scratch and
build an airframe around a new power plant a Honda two cylinder four
stroke 24 HP engine. The engine uses just over 1 gallon of fuel an hour,
and has a 2,000 hour TBO, with maintenance consisting of changing the
spark plugs and oil.
The engine is one of Honda's "service duty engines" designed to run
generators or waterpumps for extended periods of time.
The craft uses a 2.70 to 1 belt reduction drive and spins a 72 inch
Culver Prop, with a top engine speed of only 4250 RPM. This combination
of engine, redrive, and prop makes the Dragonfly whisper quiet when
flying.
The craft comes with a battery, electric start and charging system.
Buckeye has introduced a new control system set up on the Dragonfly
going to a single stick design. You apply power by pulling back on the
stick to go up, push forward to go down. For ground steering push the
stick left to go left and right to go right.
In flight controls are via foot steering bars, pushing right takes
you right and left moves you left.
Buckeye has also introduced a new instrument panel from Taskem to
work with the Honda engine. It has oil temp, RPM, flight time climb rate
and an altimeter.
The craft is in production, coming as a kit, which takes about a week
to assemble, with no manufacturing required.
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