The Jurca MJ-51 Sperocco (Special Sirocco) is a plans-built two-seat tandem

aerobatic Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

aircraft derived from the Jurca MJ-5 Sirocco.

Design and development

Encouraged by friends and previous customers,

Marcel Jurca Marcel Jurca, (1921 – 19 October 2001) was a prolific designer of homebuilt aircraft in France. He is most well known for his Tempête and Sirocco designs. Early life Born in Romania, Jurca was impressed by the PZL fighters which often flew over ...

developed the MJ-51 in 1969 as an improved, higher power Sirocco. It has a longer, more rounded, stronger

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 aircraft t ...

capable of engines up to and the wings of the MJ-7 Gnatsum without dihedral. Other changes include a raised rear seat, a longer canopy and a smaller tail. Jurca said that it was his favourite two-seat design. There are two variants - the MJ-51B for engines of , and the MJ-51C for engines from up to . Three examples have been started, each varying from the basic design in collaboration with Jurca himself. Construction of the first prototype started in France in around 1981. It was to be powered by a

Lycoming AEIO-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 produc ...

. The builder died in 2004 and the project remains incomplete. The second example was started in the USA in 1991. It has a Lycoming IO-540 engine, uprated to and made its first flight on 6 June 2019. In 2021, the aircraft, registered N3LM, won the Homebuilt Plansbuilt Grand Champion Gold Lindy at

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (formerly the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In), or just Oshkosh, is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin ...

. The third aircraft was started in France in 1999 with a plan to install a Potez engine. Transferred to a different builder, the design has been changed and strengthened to accommodate a

Lycoming AEIO-540 The Lycoming O-540 is a family of air-cooled six-cylinder, horizontally opposed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter engines of displacement, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. The engine is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Lycoming O-3 ...

Other modifications will include a two-door canopy, a larger and more accessible rear seat, additional fuel tanks, advanced avionics and uprated brakes. The aircraft has yet to fly (October 2019).

Specifications (MJ-51)

References

External links

Avions Marcel Jurca website
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