The Airborne XT is an Australian series of two-seat flying wing

ultralight trike An ultralight trike is a type of powered hang glider where flight control is by weight-shift. These aircraft have a fabric flex-wing from which is suspended a tricycle fuselage pod driven by a pusher propeller. The pod accommodates either a ...

s designed and produced by

Airborne Windsports Airborne Windsports, also called Airborne Australia and officially Airborne Windsports Pty Ltd, is an Australian ultralight trike and hang glider aircraft manufacturer based in Redhead, New South Wales. The aircraft are supplied as factory com ...

and introduced in 2003.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 94. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster OK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485X

Design and development

The XT series features an XT carriage and a cable-braced

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame cover ...

-style

high-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 co ...

, weight-shift controls, a two-seats-in-

tandem 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 ...

open cockpit,

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 a single engine in pusher configuration. The wing is made from bolted-together

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, with its double surface wing covered in

Dacron Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foo ...

sailcloth. Its span wing is supported by a single tube-type

kingpost A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above f ...

and uses an "A" frame control bar. A number of different wings are available for the series. The XT was the first carriage used by Airborne that incorporated

landing gear 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 ...

shock absorbers. It also uses a gas strut to lower and raise the wing for rigging it. Powerplants include the Rotax 912 four cylinder,

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 directi ...

horizontally-opposed A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, wh ...

aircraft engine and the

Rotax 582 The Rotax 582 is a two-stroke, two-cylinder, rotary intake valve, oil-in-fuel or oil injection pump, liquid-cooled, gear reduction-drive aircraft engine manufactured by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG. It is for use in non-certified aircraft operating ...

twin cylinder,

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

, inline engine.

Variants

;XT-912 Streak 2 :Initial version with Rotax 912 engine, Streak 2 wing and cockpit fairing, introduced in 2003. ;XT912-SST Tundra :Model with Rotax 912 engine and ''SST'' strut-braced wing, cockpit fairing and tundra tires for off-airport operations.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 202. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X ;XT-912 Tundra :Model with Rotax 912 engine and Streak or Cruze model wing, cockpit fairing and tundra tires for off-airport operations. ;XT-912 Tourer :Model with Rotax 912 engine and Streak or Cruze model wing and cockpit fairing. ;XT-912 Outback :Development of the Airborne Outback model with Rotax 912 engine tundra wheels, fuel tank and GX instrument package and no cockpit fairing. ;XT-582 Tourer :Model with

engine, Cruze model wing and cockpit fairing. ;XT-582 Tundra :Model with Rotax 582 engine, tundra tires and cockpit fairing. ;XT-582 Outback :Development of the Airborne Outback model with Rotax 582 engine, tundra tires and no fairing.

Specifications (XT Streak 2)

References

External links

* {{Airborne Windsports aircraft 2000s Australian ultralight aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Ultralight trikes