The AMS-Flight Carat A is a single-seat, high performance

motorglider A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: a fixed-wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion (MoP), capable of sustained soaring flight ...

. The sailplane was originally designed and built by Technoflug in Germany and is now manufactured by AMS-Flight in Slovenia.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 141. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X

Design and development

The Carat was designed by Technoflug around the

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

s and horizontal tail of the

Schempp-Hirth Discus The Schempp-Hirth Discus is a Standard Class glider designed by Schempp-Hirth. It was produced in Germany between 1984 and 1995 but has continued in production in the Czech Republic. It replaced the Standard Cirrus. It was designed by Klau ...

sailplane A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplan ...

, marrying these to a new

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

and engine.. Structurally the aircraft is a mixture of

fibre Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...

glass and

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

composites. The wings have PVC foam cores. In plan the wings have parallel chord inner panels and two outer sections of increasing straight taper.

Winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft' ...

are an option. Schempp-Hirth type airbrakes are mounted on the upper surfaces of the inner panels, with

turbulator A turbulator is a device that turns a laminar boundary layer into a turbulent boundary layer. Device Turbulent flow can be desired on parts of the surface of an aircraft wing (airfoil) or in industrial applications such as heat exchangers and the ...

s on the underside to ensure a controlled boundary layer transition from laminar to turbulent flow without separation. The wings have 3° of dihedral. Though the Discus and the Carat share wings, they position them differently: the Discus is a

mid-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

aircraft, the Carat a

low-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

one. Like the Discus, the Carat has a high

T-tail A T-tail is an empennage configuration in which the tailplane is mounted to the top of the fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs from the standard configuration in which the tailplane is ...

with separate

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

and

elevators An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

. The tailplane, like the wings, is detachable for easy transport. The

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

, enclosed in a large clear single piece

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

, is at the

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...

of the wing, with the main spar under the pilot's knees. The Carat has a conventional electrically-operated inwardly

retractable undercarriage Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

. The main wheels have hydraulically operated disc brakes and there is a parking brake. The non-retractable tailwheel is steerable. The Carat is powered by an air-cooled, four cylinder, Volkswagen derived, 40 kW (54 hp) Sauer S1800 piston engine. This drives the unique feature of the Carat, its folding two blade

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

: the blades fold forward like spears to minimize drag when the engine is off. This is in contrast to other motorgliders which mostly either store the propeller inside the fuselage, or merely feather the propeller blades. The Carat's propeller is opened by the centrifugal force on the turning blades, working against a folding force provided by a gas damping spring mechanism. This folding mechanism has the advantage of simplicity, but it means that the engine can not be windmill-started if the battery is flat. Because of the forward pointing blades when the engine is off, the Carat cannot be towed aloft like traditional sailplanes. The first flight was made on 16 December 1997 and the first production model displayed at Aero '99 at

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...

in April 1999 as the Technoflug TFK-2 Carat. Certification was achieved in 2003, by which time marketing had been passed to AMS.

Operational history

Six production aircraft had been built by the end of 2003 and thirty one by September 2009. The majority of these were flying in the United States, the rest mostly in Western

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Specifications

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , title= Jane's All the World's Aircraft 2011-12, last= Jackson , first= Paul , year=2011, publisher=IHS Jane's, location= Coulsdon, Surrey, isbn=978-0-7106-2955-5 , pages=534 {{cite web , url=http://www.ams-flight.si , title=AMS-Flight website , accessdate=2011-11-23 2000s Slovenian sailplanes Motor gliders