The Carlson Skycycle is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, single-seat,

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 ...

, single-engine,

homebuilt aircraft Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

that was originally designed by A. Hanford Eckman in 1945 and re-designed as a replica by Ernst W. Carlson and produced by Carlson Aircraft of

East Palestine, Ohio East Palestine ( ) is a village in northeastern Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,761 at the 2020 census. Located on the state's border with Pennsylvania, East Palestine is 20 miles (31 km) south of Youngstown and ...

in kit form. The prototype was completed in 1995.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook'', pp. 162-164. BAI Communications. Downey, Julia: ''1999 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 15, Number 12, December 1998, p. 42. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Downey, Julia: ''2001 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 17, Number 12, December 2000, p. 39. Kitplanes Acquisition Company. ISSN 0891-1851Downey, Julia: ''2002 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 18, Number 12, December 2001, p. 30. Kitplanes Acquisition Company. ISSN 0891-1851 The Carlson Skycycle is a full-size replica of the

Piper PA-8 Skycycle __NOTOC__ The Piper PA-8 Skycycle was a 1940s American single-seat light aircraft designed and built by Piper Aircraft at their Lock Haven, Pennsylvania plant. Towards the end of 1944 Piper announced a number of aircraft it intended to build afte ...

and the prototype was donated to the

Piper Aviation Museum The Piper Aviation Museum is an aviation museum at the William T. Piper Memorial Airport in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. It is focused on the history of the Piper Aircraft Corporation. History Originally founded in the 1980s as a part of the Lock ...

when no orders for the aircraft kit were forthcoming.

Design and development

Carlson Skycycle was conceived by designer Ernst W. Carlson as a tribute to the original design of A. Hanford Eckman at Piper Airplane Corporation. The original PA-8 was intended to have been one of Piper Aircraft]'s post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

aircraft models, but only the prototype was built and it did not enter production. Nevertheless, the PA-8 offered good performance, cruising at on just . Carlson set out to build a replica as close as possible to the original, working from the only surviving documents, some sketches, a few photographs and one three-view drawing. The original materials were not duplicated and the Carlson model is built with a

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

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 ...

over a welded steel frame, with a 2024-T3 aluminium tail cone, supported by internal bulkheads. The aircraft has a

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...

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 ...

. The original PA-8's engine was specified, a

Lycoming O-145 The Lycoming O-145 is a family of small, low-horsepower, four-cylinder, air-cooled engines. It was Lycoming Engines' first horizontally opposed aircraft engine and was produced from 1938 until the late 1940s. The family includes the reduction-ge ...

of . Carlson's plan in recreating the Skycycle was to offer kits for sale, but the design requires factory assistance and special tooling to complete and no kits beyond the prototype were completed. Construction time from the kit was intended to be 800 hours.

Specifications (Skycycle)

References

{{Carlson Aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Replica aircraft

Design and development

Specifications (Skycycle)

See also

References