The Extra EA-500 is a six-seat single-engined high wing

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...

aircraft designed by the

Extra Aircraft The Extra Aircraft company was established in 1980 as Extra Flugzeugbau in Germany by Walter Extra, an aerobatic pilot, to design and develop his own aerobatic aircraft. The company is located at Dinslaken airfield in Hünxe, North Rhine-Westp ...

company. During 2015 a decision was made to end production.

Design and development

Started by

Walter Extra Walter Extra is a German award-winning aerobatic pilot and chief aircraft designer who founded the aerobatic aircraft manufacturer Extra Flugzeugbau (Extra Aircraft Construction). Extra was trained as a mechanical engineer. He began his flight ...

, the company has been manufacturing

aerobatic Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

airplanes almost exclusively with their latest products being the

Extra EA-300 The Extra Flugzeugbau EA300 is a two-seat aerobatic monoplane capable of Unlimited category competition. It was designed in 1987 by Walter Extra, a German aerobatic pilot, and built by Extra Flugzeugbau. Design and development Design of the E ...

series. The company introduced the

Extra EA-400 The Extra EA-400 is a six-seat, single-engined, high-wing monoplane produced by Extra Flugzeugbau GmbH. The EA-400 is powered by a liquid-cooled Continental Voyager turbocharged piston engine. Design and development Started by Walter Extra, t ...

in 2001. This is a cross-country airplane with many exclusive features including

carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

construction, pressurized cabin, high strutless wing, and seating for six. The EA-500 was introduced as an alternative version of the EA-400 with the

piston engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...

replaced by a

Rolls-Royce Model 250 The Allison Model 250, now known as the Rolls-Royce M250, (US military designations T63 and T703) is a highly successful turboshaft engine family, originally developed by the Allison Engine Company in the early 1960s. The Model 250 has been pro ...

-B17F/2

yielding , weighing , and driving a 5 bladed

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. This engine is widely used in small helicopters and was designed to have good fuel efficiency at lower altitudes. This engine's critical altitude is 16,000 feet. However, the Rolls-Royce Model 250 is very light and small at the expense of power. The maximum cruise speed is 225 kn at 12000 feet. The most recent changes to the aircraft come from Avidyne with their latest glass avionics, Entegra R9. The high wing design was used for a number of reasons, including no wing spar in the cabin and in the event of a dual fuel pump failure, fuel flow is helped by gravity. The EA-500's cabin is spacious, 55 inches across by 49 inches tall; also the windshield has a fast taper, which wraps up around the two pilots. The EA-500 has a T-tail instead of a regular tail to keep the elevator surfaces out of the prop wash; therefore minimizing pitch changes due to power changes. Like the Extra EA-400, the EA-500 is made of mostly composite materials, that mostly being carbon fiber. The company was planning to produce the EA-500 for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

market, and was investigating plans to assemble the aircraft in the US. The EA500 type certificate is currently held by SST Flugtechnik, which provides customer support to the current EA400 and EA400-500 operators. In 2014 the company sold the design rights to the EA400 and 500 to the Chinese company Jiangsu A-Star Industry Co., Ltd. Extra embarked on training the engineers from Jiangsu A-Star while still retaining the

type certificate A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applica ...

and providing parts to support to the existing fleet.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 153. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. The EA-500's approach speed of 90-120 knots and turbine power makes it able to land on 2,000 ft runways. The EA-500 is also cheaper than its competitors, mainly the SOCATA TBM 850 and

Pilatus PC-12 The Pilatus PC-12 is a pressurized, single-engined, turboprop aircraft, manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Stans, Switzerland, since 1991. It was designed as a high-performance utility aircraft that incorporates a large aft cargo door in ad ...

Specifications (Extra EA-500)

References

* ''International Aircraft Directory, 3rd edition'' ()
EASA Type Certificate for EA 400 and EA 400-500

External links

* http://www.extraaircraft.com/ {{Extra aircraft 2000s German civil utility aircraft Extra aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft Single-engined turboprop aircraft Aircraft first flown in 2002

Design and development

Specifications (Extra EA-500)

See also

References

External links