Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Two-seat light touring aircraft

Power Plant:

One 48 kw (64 hp) Rotax 582UL-V two-cylinder, two-stroke, electronic dual-ignition liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

The CFM Streak and Shadow light aircraft were produced by the Cook Flying Machine Company (CFM) in the United Kingdom and were a sales success, with examples sold to more than 36 countries around the world, including New Zealand and Australia. Licence production was undertaken in South Africa and the United States where it was built by Laron Aviation Technologies. It waas used on a range of diverse duties, including spotting rhino poachers in Zimbabwe, supporting the World Wildlife Fund in Kenya, crop spraying in Hungary, and covert intelligence gathering for NATO in Turkey.

The aircraft was designed by David Cook as an efficient, ultra lightweight, two-seat machine with conventional controls, featuring tandem seating in the Shadow.

The first Shadow (c/n 001) flew in 1981. Construction was conventional and strength loads were +4.6G and –3G.

Production commenced in 1984 and an example set a number of FAI world speed and distance records. On 26 April 1986 Eve Jackson left Biggin Hill in nsouth east London and flew a Shadow from the United Kingdom to Australia, arriving in Darwin, NT on 3 June 1987. This was the first ultralight flight of its type and Ms Jackson was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal for the flight.

Another CFM Shadow G-MTKS (c/n 066 – ‘Dalgetty Flyer’), powered by a 31 kw (41 hp) Rotax 447 engine, flown by Brian Milton, left the United Kingdom on 2 December 1987 and landed on Australian soil at Troughton Island, WA on 20 January 1988, arriving in Sydney, NSW on 29 January 1988. This Shadow made the flight in 44 days, suffering a number of problems during the journey, including being blown over in Kithira in Greece, a forced landing in a sand storm in Saudi Arabia, and a ditching in the Arabian Gulf. The aircraft was later placed on display for a period in the PowerHouse Museum in Sydney. In 1990, the designer broke the UK microlight altitude record at 7,524 m (23,800 ft).

Development led to the Streak Shadow, a higher powered, clipped-wing Shadow-based kit-built aircraft, one of these aircraft being flown to 8,250 m (27,067 ft). In 1994 one set a time-to-climb record to 3,000 m (9,843 ft) of 8 mins 55 secs.

Development of the series continued to the Star Streak and the Wizard. The Star Streak was powered by a 63 kw (85 hp) Hirth F-30 engine and had improved performance. The Wizard was originally designed by Korean businessman, Ho Sun Park, and featured Lockheed P-38 type twin tail-booms and side-by-side seating but looked similar otherwise to the other aircraft in the Company’s line.

By June 2001 397 examples had been completed and had been built in 40 countries. The Indian Air Force obtained 24 examples and a number have been operated by Aero Clubs in the training role. The Shadow D was made available as suitable for crop spraying and for surveillance duties. Floats were developed for installation at one stage.

Variants have included the basic Shadow with a Rotax 447 engine; Shadow C with a Rotax 503 engine; Shadow D with a Rotax 582 engine; Shadow E, which was similar to the Shadow D but with a Rotax 912 engine; Streak SL with either the Rotax 582 or 912 engine; Streak SLA with increased flap angle and other minor changes; and the Star Streak with either the Rotax 618 or 912 engine and with a narrower chord.

A number have been imported to this region, those flown in Australia being registered under RAA Regulations. These have included: 28-1090 (c/n K263SA/W226) which later became 19-1090 and was withdrawn from use in 2003; 28-1871 (c/n K266/N378) which later became 19-1871; 28-1456 (c/n K254) which was registered on 3 March 1995; 28-3093 (c/n K255SA) which was registered on 7 September 1999; 28-0917 (c/n K231SA – Q117) whyich was registered on 28 July 1994 and later became 19-0917, the first completed in Australia; 28-0921 (c/n K221SA – Q074) which was registered on 4 October 1994; and 28-1061² (c/n K258SA/Q142) wuich was registered on 6 September 1995.

A number of Shadows have been registered in New Zealand, including ZK-FMY (c/n MAANZ/366), ZK-FSG (c/n 1074), ZK-KLH (c/n 060/MAANZ/417), ZK-MAX (c/n 056) and ZK-TTE (c/n 065/MAANZ/420).