Photograph:
American Eaglet ZK-GOE (c/n AACA/641) at Omaka, NZ in 1987 (Keith Morris – NZCIVAIR)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Single-seat self-launched glider
Power Plant:
One 9.1 kw (12.2 hp) McCulloch MC101B single-cylinder, two-stroke, air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 10.97 m (36 ft)
- Length: 4.88 m (16 ft)
- Height: 0.91 m (3 ft)
- Wing area: 6.69 m² (72 sq ft)
- Max speed: 185 km/h (115 mph)
- Stalling speed: 61 km/h (38 mph)
- Climb at sea level under power: 137 m/min (450 ft/min)
- Best glide ratio at: 84 km/h (52 mph) 27
- Minimum sink speed at 64 km/h (40 mph): 0.76 m/sec (2.5 ft/sec)
- Take-off run: 305 m (1,000 ft)
- Landing run: 90 m (300 ft)
- Fuel capacity: 1.81 kg (4 lb) or 2 litres (0.43 Imp gal)
- Empty weight: 72.5 kg (160 lb)
- Loaded weight: 163 kg (360 lb)
- Max wing loading: 24.41 kg/m² (5 lb/sq ft)
History:
The Eaglet self-launched glider or sailplane was produced by AmEagle Corporation at Muskegon, in Michigan, USA, this Company being formed by Larry Haig. Design commenced in September 1974, the prototype N101EA (c/n 001) flying for the first time on 19 November 1975. It was aimed at the amateur construction market and by 1980 more than 400 kits had been ordered. Examples were sold around the world.
The Eaglet was a monoplane with a shoulder wing with a single aluminium bracing strut, the wing section being Wortmann FX-61-184. It had a sparless stressed-skin structure with urethane foam, moulded fibreglass leading-edges and wingtips, and epoxy-bonded pre-cured fibreglass skins. It had no flaps or tabs.
The fuselage was a pod-and-boom structure, the forward cockpit section comprising two pre-formed fibreglass half shells pop-riveted to a framework of pre-formed tubular aluminium longerons. The tail was a cantilever inverted V-unit with elevators, and the tail surfaces had urethane foam core and an epoxy/fibreglass skin.
The engine was a converted Go-kart McCulloch MC101B single-cylinder unit which provided 9.1 kw (12.2 hp) at 8,000 rpm. It was installed behind the cockpit driving a two-blade fixed-pitch pusher propeller with folding plastic blades. Starting was by recoil. Fuel capacity of 2 litres (0.43 Imp gals) was sufficient for one take-off and climb to 610 m (2,000 ft) and three airborne re-starts and climbs from 150 m (500 ft) to 610 m (2,000 ft).
A number of examples were imported to Australasia including five to New Zealand, these being ZK-GOE (c/n AACA/641) which was registered on 10 June 1986, parts of which after retirement in 1992 were used in the construction of a Sunbird motor glider; ZK-GOH (c/n A591) which was registered from August 1987 to August 1995 when it was retired; ZK-GOJ (c/n AACA/678) which, after receiving damage at Hobsonville on 20 December 1987, was withdrawn from use; ZK-GOK (c/n AACA/231) registered in May 1984 and withdrawn in October 2003; and ZK-GPF (c/n 365) which was completed with a conventional rudder and tailplane, was registered in November 1994, and was cancelled from the register in 2001.