The Airbet Girabet is a family of Spanish autogyros, designed and produced by Airbet of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. They are all supplied as complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', pages 175-176. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X

Design and development

The Girabet family of designs all feature a single main rotor,

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

and Rotax

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a Thermodynamic power cycle, power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being comple ...

and

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

engines mounted in

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

. The aircraft

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 ...

is made from curved steel and

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

tubing and mounts a cruciform tail. All rotor blades and other dynamic components are built by the company in-house. All models fit pre-rotators to shorten take-off distances.

Variants

;Girabet Classic :Original single seat model, powered by a Rotax 503 twin cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke, dual-ignition powerplant. Its diameter rotor has a chord of . The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . The company also offers a custom-built trailer for ground transportation and home storage. ;Girabet 582 :More powerful single seat model, powered by a Rotax 582 twin cylinder, liquid-cooled, two-stroke, dual-ignition powerplant. Its diameter rotor has a chord of . The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . Take-off roll with the pre-rotator is . ;Girabet 2 :

Side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

two seat model intended for use as a trainer, powered by a

Rotax 912S The Rotax 912 is a horizontally-opposed four-cylinder, naturally aspirated, four-stroke aircraft engine with a reduction gearbox. It features liquid-cooled cylinder heads and air-cooled cylinders. Originally equipped with carburetors, later ...

four cylinder, air and liquid-cooled, four-stroke, dual-ignition powerplant. Its diameter rotor has a chord of . The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . ;Girabet 2 Sport :Side-by-side configuration two seat model intended for use as a cross country aircraft and equipped with a

cockpit fairing An aircraft fairing is a structure whose primary function is to produce a smooth outline and reduce drag.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, Third Edition'', page 206. Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc, Newcastle Washington, 1997. ...

and windshield. Powered by a

four cylinder, air and liquid-cooled, four-stroke, dual-ignition powerplant, its diameter rotor has a chord of . The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of .

Specifications (Girabet 582)

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.airbet.net/ 1990s Spanish sport aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined pusher autogyros