The International Ultralight Banchee (also called the Banshee) is an American ultralight aircraft designed by Brian Jensen, Gil Kinzie and Nick Nichols and produced by International Ultralight Aviation. The aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page E-4. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001.

Design and development

The aircraft closely resembles the Pterodactyl Ptraveler, and, like the Pterodactyl, was designed to comply with the US

FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles Ultralight aircraft in the United States are much smaller and lighter than ultralight aircraft as defined by all other countries. In the United States, ultralights are described as "ultralight vehicles" and not as aircraft. They are not req ...

rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of . The Banchee has a standard empty weight of . It features a cable-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 ...

, single-seat, open cockpit, single pusher engine configuration, and is equipped with

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 ...

. The aircraft is made from bolted-together

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 ...

tubing, with the wing covered with

Dacron Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foo ...

sailcloth. Its span wing is cable-braced from an inverted "V"

kingpost A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above f ...

, has 4° of dihedral and 15° of sweepback. The three-axis control system is unconventional,Berger, Alain-Yves and Norman Burr: ''Berger-Burr's Ultralight and Microlight Aircraft of the World'', Volume 16, page 199. Haynes Publishing Group, 1983. with pitch controlled by an all-flying canard, yaw by wingtip rudders and roll by

spoileron In aeronautics, spoilerons (also known as spoiler ailerons or roll spoilers) are spoilers that can be used asymmetrically as flight control surfaces to provide roll control. Operation Spoilerons roll an aircraft by reducing the lift of the ...

s, all actuated by a single

side-stick __NOTOC__ A side-stick or sidestick controller is an aircraft control stick that is located on the side console of the pilot, usually on the righthand side, or outboard on a two-seat flightdeck. Typically this is found in aircraft that are equ ...

, the aircraft lacking

rudder pedal A conventional fixed-wing aircraft flight control system consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. Aircraft e ...

s. The cockpit is an open sling seat without a windshield. The tricycle

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

features suspension on all wheels. The

Cuyuna 430R The Cuyuna 430 and Cuyuna 340 are a family of two-stroke, twin-cylinder piston snowmobile engines that were redesigned to serve as ultralight aircraft powerplants.Cuyuna Development Company: ''Cuyuna Engines'', Cuyuna Development Company, unda ...

engine is mounted behind the pilot and can produce at 6250 rpm. A

ballistic parachute A ballistic parachute, ballistic reserve parachute, or emergency ballistic reserve parachute, is a parachute ejected from its casing by a small explosion, much like that used in an ejection seat. The advantage of the ballistic parachute over a co ...

was available as an option, as was an electric starter; the company claimed that the Banchee could be rigged in 35 minutes.

Accidents and incidents

On 21 May 1983 during a demonstration flight at

St. George, Utah St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...

a Banchee suffered a cable swaging failure at an altitude of that resulted in one fatality. The US National Transportation Safety Board cited the probable causes as improper maintenance and quality assurance on the part of the manufacturer. The company went out of business shortly after the accident.

Specifications (Banchee)

References

{{reflist 1980s United States ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Banchee Canard aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft