Photograph:
Monnett Monerai P VH-HDF (c/n GFA/HB/96) whilst operating with the Lake Keepit Soaring Club, NSW (LKSC)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Single-seat self-launched glider
Power Plant:
One 16 kw (22 hp) at 6,600 rpm Zenoah G-25B single-cylinder two-stroke 242-cc (14.78 cub-in) weighing 23.1 kg (51 lb)
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 10.97 m (36 ft 0 in)
- Length: 5.96 m (19 ft 7 in)
- Height: 1.32 m (4 ft 3 in)
- Wing area: 7.25 m² (78 sq ft)
- Never exceed speed: 193 km/h (120 mph)
- Max speed: 145 km/h (90 mph)
- Max cruising speed: 97 km/h (60 mph)
- Stalling speed: 64 km/h (40 mph)
- Max rate of climb at sea level: 91 m/min (300 ft/min)
- Max sink rate at 89 km/h (55 mph): 0.85 m/sec (2.8 ft/sec)
- Max rough air speed: 145 km/h (90 mph)
- Best glide ratio 28 at 97 km/h (60 mph)
- Fuel capacity: 3.8 litres (1 US gal)
- Best glide ratio with power off: 22/1 at 97 km/h (60 mph)
- Take-off distance: 150 m (500 ft)
- Empty weight: 122 kg (270 lb)
- Payload weight: 104 kg (230 lb)
- Loaded weight: 227 kg (500 lb)
- Max wing loading: 31.3 kg/sq m (6.41 lb/sq ft)
- Load factor: +5.2
History:
The Monerai is a glider designed and developed in the United States in the late 1970s aimed at the home-built market. It was of conventional design with a cockpit pod, a slim fuselage and a V-tail. The fuselage was of welded steel tube truss with a fibreglass shell and the tail boom was built of aluminium tube. It could be built as a non-powered glider as the Monerai S, or as a powered model. Two engines were available: the Zenoah G-25B single-cylinder unit or the KFM 107 the latter providing 19 kw (25 hp) at 7,300 rpm. The prototype was flown in 1978 and was fitted with a Sachs rotary engine. A variant was the Monerai Max with an increased wingspan to 12 m (39 ft).
The Monerai is one of a number of designs produced by John T Monnett and it was marketed by Monnett Experimental Aircraft of Wisconsin. The wings were all aluminium construction with an extruded I-beam main spar and 26 wing ribs per wing. A few examples in the United States were completed with a Zenoah 250 cc engine or a Koenig three-cylinder radial engine. The engine was solidly mounted on a pylon behind the cockpit and could be removed when desired. In the 1980s ownership of the Company was changed after auction to Hapi Engines of Eloy of Arizona.
A couple of Monerais have been registered in Australia, one being a Monerai P VH-HDF (c/n GFA/HB/96) operated for a period by the Lake Keepit Soaring Club of NSW and fitted with a 12 m (39 ft) wing. The aircraft was manufactured in 1984 and was first registered on 20 November that year. A few examples are on display in museums in the United States.