The Cicaré CH-7 and Heli-Sport CH7 are a series of

ultralight 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 ailer ...

, kit-built

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s based on a single-seat Argentinian design from the late 1980s. It was later developed into a tandem two-seater, and remains in production.

Design and development

In 1989 EliSport, which became Heli-Sport in 1997, bought the rights to the Cicare CH-6, a small single-seat open cockpit helicopter designed in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

by Augusto Cicaré. It was developed by Josi and Claudio Barbero and, with the help of the sports car designer,

Marcello Gandini Marcello Gandini (born 26 August 1938) is an Italian car designer, known for his work with the automotive design house Gruppo Bertone, including his designs of the Lamborghini Miura, Countach, and the Lamborghini Diablo. In a 2009 interview wit ...

who produced a new, enclosed cabin, marketed from 1992 as the CH-7 Angel. Its commercial success led to a tandem two-seat version with a stretched cabin and bigger engine, named the CH-7 Kompress and, in 2005, a further refinement designated the CH-7 Kompress Charlie. The piston engine-powered CH-7 ultralight series use the traditional "penny-farthing" layout with two-bladed main and tail rotors. The main rotor is formed from composites and is a teetering, semi-rigid design with 6° of twist. The tail rotor is aluminium. The pod-and-boom fuselage has 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 cloth ...

cabin built on a steel tube frame, with a long transparent forward-opening canopy. The steel frame also carries the engine, semi-exposed behind the accommodation and connected to the main rotor shaft by a belt drive. A slender aluminium boom, strengthened by a pair of long struts to the lower fuselage frame, carries both the tail rotor and swept fins. The upper fin is topped with a short horizontal tailplane, with small

endplate The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic i ...

fins, and the lower one ends with a tailskid. The CH-7 uses a simple aluminium skid undercarriage, which may be fitted with small wheels for ground handling or multi-tube inflatable floats for flying off water. In this last form the CH-7 is called the Mariner. The Kompress Charlie has faired, wide-chord carbon fibre skid legs. The Kompress and Kompress Charlie are sold in kit form for home assembly, the manufacturers quoting a 200-hour building time. A fast-build kit, with more components pre-assembled, is claimed to require 85 hours. The Kompress series may be fitted with a hook for lifting loads of up to 100 kg (220 lb), or fitted with spray bars for agricultural work.

Operational history

120 Angels were built between 1992 and 1997, followed by 215 Kompress and Kompress Charlies up to May 2009. By mid-2009 the Kompress variants had logged over 30,000 flying hours with owners in 15 countries. There are dealerships in the Czech republic, France, Italy and Poland. In 2007 the CH-7 won the Italian Helicopter Championships. It gained 3rd place in the 2009

World Air Games The FAI World Air Games (WAG) is an international air sports event organized by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (World Air Sports Federation - FAI), inspired by the Olympic Games. Competitions #Aerobatics #Aeromodeling # Air racing #Bal ...

Variants

''Information from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 2010 and manufacturer's website'' ;CH-7 Angel:CH-6 with new, enclosed cockpit, powered by either 48 kW (64 hp) Rotax 582UL UL or 60 kW (80 hp) Rotax 912 UL. First marketed in 1992, but kits no longer (2010) available. ;CH-7 Kompress: Tandem two-seat version, with elongated cockpit and 114 hp (85 kW)

Rotax 914 The Rotax 914 is a turbo-charged, four-stroke, four-cylinder, horizontally opposed aircraft engine with air-cooled cylinders and water-cooled cylinder heads. It is designed and built by the Austrian company BRP-Powertrain, owned by Bombardier R ...

engine. Still available, upgradable to Kompress Charlie standard. ;CH-7 Kompress Charlie: 2005 development of Kompress with greater fuel capacity, hinged carbon fibre engine cowlings and carbon fibre, airfoil section undercarriage legs. Vibration reduced and speed and high altitude performance improved. Elisport CH-7 Kompress, Radom Air Show 2007

Elisport CH-7 Kompress, Radom Air Show 2007

;CH-7 Mariner: Inflatable float-equipped version, 15 kg (33 lb) heavier. ;CH-7B Spirit :Evolutionary design version, powered by a four cylinder, air and liquid-cooled,

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 directio ...

dual-ignition Dual Ignition is a system for spark-ignition engines, whereby critical ignition components, such as spark plugs and magnetos, are duplicated. Dual ignition is most commonly employed on aero engines,Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

Rotax 912S 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, ...

engine. In production 2011 by Cicaré SA of Argentina.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 190. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X ;CH-7T Spirit Tandem :Version, powered by a four cylinder, air and liquid-cooled, four-stroke, dual-ignition

engine. In production as a 51% kit and as a ready-to-fly aircraft in 2015 by Cicaré SA of Argentina.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 205. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Specifications (Kompress Charlie, European specification)

References

;Notes

External links