The American Sportscopter Ultrasport 331 is an American

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

that was designed and produced by

American Sportscopter American Sportscopter, Inc., also called American Sportscopter International, Inc., was an American aircraft manufacturer based in Newport News, Virginia. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of helicopters in the form of the U ...

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 318. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The Ultrasport 331 is a development of the Ultrasport 254 and, like that model, is named for its empty weight in pounds. The aircraft was designed to comply with the US ''Experimental - Amateur-built'' aircraft rules. It features a single main rotor, a single-seat enclosed cockpit with doors, skid-type

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 ...

and a twin cylinder, air-cooled,

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 ...

dual-ignition Dual Ignition is a system for spark-ignition engines, whereby critical ignition components, such as spark plugs and magnetos, are duplicated. Dual ignition is most commonly employed on aero engines,Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

Hirth 2706 The Hirth 2704 and 2706 are a family of in-line twin cylinder, two stroke, carburetted aircraft engines, with optional fuel injection, designed for use on ultralight aircraft and especially two seat ultralight trainers, single seat gyrocopt ...

engine. 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 composites. Its diameter two-bladed rotor has a chord of and employs an ATI 012 (VR-7 mod)

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. ...

at the blade root, transitioning to an ATI 008 (VR-7 mod) airfoil at the tip. The ring-mounted tail rotor has a diameter and a chord of . The cyclic control is mounted from the cockpit ceiling, but otherwise is conventional. The horizontal

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 ...

mounts end-fins for directional stability. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload is . The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit as 60 hours.

Operational history

By June 2014 three examples had been registered in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

, although a total of six had been registered at one time.

Specifications (Ultrasport 331)

References

External links

Photo of an American Sportscopter Ultrasport 331
{{American Sportscopter aircraft Ultrasport 331 2000s United States sport aircraft 2000s United States helicopters Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined piston helicopters

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Ultrasport 331)

See also

References

External links