The Hinz BLT-ARA is a German

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 designed and produced by L and B Hinz of

Filderstadt Filderstadt (; Swabian: ''Fildorsdadd'') is a town in the district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located approximately 13 km south of Stuttgart. Filderstadt is located next to the Stuttgart Airport and t ...

. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as in the form of plans and a 300-page builder's manual for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 175. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The BLT-ARA is a development of the earlier Hinz BL1-KEA which was first flown in 1989. The BLT-ARA 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 under a

bubble canopy A bubble canopy is an aircraft canopy constructed without bracing, for the purpose of providing a wider unobstructed field of view to the pilot, often providing 360° all-round visibility. The designs of bubble canopies can drastically vary; so ...

T-tail A T-tail is an empennage configuration in which the tailplane is mounted to the top of the fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs from the standard configuration in which the tailplane is ...

, retractable

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 c ...

. The aircraft is made from

fibreglass 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 ...

, using a moldless construction technique. Its span wing has a wing area of . The wings and

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

are detachable, similar to a glider's to allow ground transport or storage in a trailer. The cabin width is . The acceptable power range is and the standard engine used is the

Limbach L2400 The Limbach L 2400 are a series of German piston aero-engines designed and built by Limbach Flugmotoren. It is a four-cylinder, four-stroke air-cooled flat piston engine typically between 93-130 hp (69.4-97 kW) power output.Purdy, p. ...

powerplant. The BLT-ARA has a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for the pilot, passenger and baggage is . The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied plans as 3000 hours.

Operational history

By 1998 the company reported that 13 sets of plans had been sold.

Specifications (BLT-ARA)

References

{{reflist BLT-ARA 1990s German sport aircraft 1990s German civil utility aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Homebuilt aircraft T-tail aircraft