The Explorair Relax MV is a German

powered parachute A powered parachute, often abbreviated PPC, and also called a motorized parachute or paraplane, is a type of aircraft that consists of a parafoil with a motor and wheels. The FAA defines a powered parachute as ''a powered aircraft a flexible o ...

that was designed by Mathias Mauch and produced by Explorair of

Ebringen Ebringen (Breisgau) is a municipality in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Geography Ebringen is located about 5 km (3 mi) south of Freiburg at the Schoenberg and belongs to the Freib ...

, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 81. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485X The aircraft was introduced in about 2002 and production ended when the company went out of business in 2004.

Design and development

The Relax MV was designed to comply with the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale

microlight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

category and the US

FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles Ultralight aircraft in the United States are much smaller and lighter than ultralight aircraft as defined by all other countries. In the United States, ultralights are described as "ultralight vehicles" and not as aircraft. They are not req ...

rules. The Relax MV features a parachute-style wing, single-place accommodation,

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 Explorair-converted

Briggs & Stratton Briggs & Stratton Corporation is an American manufacturer of gasoline engines with headquarters in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Engine production averages 10 million units per year as of April 2015. The company reports that it has 13 large facili ...

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 ...

engine in pusher configuration. The aircraft carriage is built from a combination of

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

and bolted

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. The carriage can be converted for use with a

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 ...

wing as an

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 ...

. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for pilot and baggage is .

Specifications (Relax MV)

References

{{reflist

Relax Relax may refer to: Aviation * Roland Z-120 Relax, a German ultralight aircraft design for the 120 kg class Music Albums * ''Relax'' (Blank & Jones album), 2003 * ''Relax'' (Das Racist album), 2011 Songs * "Relax" (song), a 1983 song by Fran ...

2000s German sport aircraft 2000s German ultralight aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Powered parachutes Ultralight trikes