 Innovator Technologies now offers several versions of their Mosquito single place ultralight helicopter. The basic unit is a wide open bugs in your teeth unit, using aluminum tube bolt together construction.The enclosed XE model eliminates the all metal airframe replacing it with all composite construction. Both units are powered by a two stroke Zanzottera MZ 202 engine which weights 60 lbs and produces 65 hp, when equipped with a tuned exhaust.
The MZ 202 comes with electric start and a clutch. The centrifugal clutch allows the engine to start up and idle without being under a load.
The XE body was designed by George Boynton and Dwight Junkin of Florida, long time boat builders from Florida. George contacted John Uptigrove the designer of the Mosquito a number of years ago about designing a body for the helicopter.
It took three years of R&D to finally get the fuselage down so the Mosquito XE met the ultralight weight requirement. The all composite body is made up of 46 different molds, which in total weigh only 62 lbs. For the past four years the bodies for Mosquito have been supplied to Innovator Technologies from Florida. Since getting involved with John Uptigrove Dwight Junkin has always had the idea in the back of his mind to power it with a turbine engine. The reasons for this were the smoothness and reliability of the turbine, it's long life, and the fact that they can run "100 per cent all day long, with the only downside being they are less fuel efficient." After many requests from customers he set out to make a turbine installation available for the XE.
It has taken Dwight two years and "many hundreds of hours" of work to come up with a turbine power unit for the craft. A new fuel system, starting system, charging system, and drive system had to be designed to accommodate the turbine.
Dwight had to redesign some of the structure of the Mosquito XE to handle the extra weight and power of the 90 HP turbine engine. This has taken the Mosquito when equipped with the turbine out of the ultralight category. Built in the Experimental Category from kit the craft should take 250 to 300 hours to complete. The 90 HP turbine does give the Mosquito XE "a lot of reserve power, making it more of a little HOT ROD!" As of Airventure 2007 Dwight has just over 45 hours of flying on the turbine.
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