The Stoddard-Hamilton Glasair II 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 ...

as a kit for amateur construction. It was first flown in 1989, and remained in production in 2012.Downey, 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 261. BAI Communications.

Design and development

A development of the earlier

Glasair I The Glasair I, originally built as the prototype Glasair TD taildragger, is a high-performance homebuilt aircraft built of fiberglass. Created by Tom Hamilton as a fast, two-seat kitplane, the Glasair TD was derived from the earlier Tom Hamilto ...

, the Glasair II features a cantilever

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 ...

, 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 gull-winged doors, fixed or retractable

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 ...

or fixed

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 Glasair II was designed to FAR Part 23 standards and was extensively tested. Its wing has been tested to +10.5 g. As indicated by its name, the aircraft is made from

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 ...

. 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. The wings have an area of and mount flaps. The acceptable power range for the Super II RG or Super II FT versions is , with 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 powerplant a commonly used engine.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 183. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485X The manufacturer estimates construction time for the Super II RG or Super II FT versions as 3000 hours. The Glasair II was later developed into the Glasair III.

Operational history

By December 2011 there were 1200 examples reported completed and flying making it one of the most successful two seat kit aircraft ever designed.

Variants

;Glasair II-S : stretch GlasairSH-2FC-FMRX

;Glasair Super II FT :Fixed tricycle landing gear version, in production in 2011. GlaasairRG

;Glasair Super II RG :Retractable tricycle landing gear version, in production in 2011. ;Glasair Super II TD :Fixed taildragger landing gear version, in production in 1998, but production presently completed.

Specifications (Glasair Super II RG)

References

External links

* {{Glasair aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Glasair II Glasair II Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1989