The Glasair GlaStar (sometimes Glastar) is an American

amateur-built 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 designed by Tom Hamilton and produced by

Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft, based in Arlington, Washington, was a designer and supplier of high-performance homebuilt aircraft kits, offering parts and plans to homebuilders. The company's popular ''Glasair'' aircraft series are low wing, two- ...

and later

Glasair Aviation Glasair Aviation USA, LLC is a Chinese-owned aircraft manufacturer based in Arlington, Washington that produces the Glasair and Sportsman 2+2 line of homebuilt aircraft. More than 3000 Glasair kits have been delivered worldwide. History Tom ...

. It was first flown in 1994 and was superseded in production by the

Glasair Sportsman 2+2 The Glasair Sportsman 2+2 is a single-engine, high wing, strut-braced, four seat kit aircraft, developed by the Glasair Aviation company.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 201 ...

c. 2005. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 183. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485XDowney, Julia: ''1999 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 15, Number 12, December 1998, page 68. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook'', page 262. BAI Communications.

Design and development

The GlaStar features a strut-braced

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 ...

, a two-seats-in-

side-by-side configuration 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 ...

enclosed cockpit accessed via doors, fixed

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 ...

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

and a single engine in

tractor configuration In aviation, the term tractor configuration refers to an aircraft constructed in the standard configuration with its engine mounted with the propeller in front of it so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. Oppositely, the pusher co ...

. The aircraft is made with a welded steel

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 aircraf ...

, 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 clo ...

covering and

aluminum 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. It ha ...

wings. Its span wing employs a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

GA(W)-2 airfoil at the wing root, with a NASA GA(W)-2 mod at the

wing tip A wing tip (or wingtip) is the part of the wing that is most distant from the fuselage of a fixed-wing aircraft. Because the wing tip shape influences the size and drag of the wingtip vortices, tip design has produced a diversity of sha ...

. The wings have an area of , mount flaps and can be folded for ground transportation or storage. The acceptable power range is and early engines used included the

Rotax 912ULS The Rotax 912 is a horizontally-opposed four-cylinder, naturally aspirated, four-stroke aircraft engine with a reduction gearbox. It features liquid-cooled cylinder heads and air-cooled cylinders. Originally equipped with carburetors, later ...

. The aircraft proved underpowered with the Rotax, and later the

Lycoming O-320 The Lycoming O-320 is a large family of naturally aspirated, air-cooled, four-cylinder, direct-drive engines produced by Lycoming Engines. They are commonly used on light aircraft such as the Cessna 172 and Piper Cherokee. Different variants ...

and the

Lycoming O-360 The Lycoming O-360 is a family of four-cylinder, direct-drive, horizontally opposed, air-cooled, piston aircraft engines. Engines in the O-360 series produce between 145 and 225 horsepower (109 to 168 kW), with the basic O-360 producing ...

four-stroke powerplants were used. The landing gear can be rapidly converted between tricycle and taildragger configurations. The cockpit is wide and includes a large baggage area that will accommodate of cargo. Initial factory estimated construction time was 1200 hours.

Accidents and Incidents

In 1996, a service recall was issued for the control yoke assembly of select GlaStar kits. In 1999, one of the GlaStar kits not included in the recall crashed, killing its two occupants.

Variants

;

Symphony SA-160 The Symphony SA-160 is a CAR 523 certified, two-seat, single-engine, high-wing airplane that was manufactured by Symphony Aircraft Industries in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada in the mid-2000s.Hunt, Adam: ''A brief history of Symphony Airc ...

Type certified 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 ...

version, produced by Ostmecklenburgische Flugzeugbau (OMF) and later Symphony Aircraft. ;

:Four seat development with a gross weight of that replaced the original GlaStar in production.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 103. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X ;

Plane Driven PD-1 The Plane Driven PD-1 is a modification to the Glasair Sportsman 2+2 to convert it into a practical roadable aircraft. The approach is novel in that it uses a mostly stock aircraft with a modified landing gear "pod" that carries a separate engine ...

:Roadable version produced by Plane Driven.

Specifications (GlaStar)

References

External links

{{Glasair aircraft Homebuilt aircraft

GlaStar The Glasair GlaStar (sometimes Glastar) is an American amateur-built aircraft that was designed by Tom Hamilton and produced by Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft and later Glasair Aviation. It was first flown in 1994 and was superseded in production ...

Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft