The Jurca MJ-53 Autan (named after a wind in Southern France) is a plans-built, low-wing, touring

monoplane 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 ...

designed in France by

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 ...

Development

Jurca was initially reluctant to design a

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 ...

aircraft as he preferred single-seat or tandem-seat 'fighters', but he was convinced to do it by friends and potential customers. The Autan is a development of the wooden-construction Jurca MJ-5 Sirocco, with a new trapezoidal wing based on the Jurca MJ-7 Gnatsum, but with flaps. The

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 ...

is redesigned to accommodate a wider cabin, and the result is a shoulder width of , unusually spacious for this class of aircraft. The basic design is for a fixed

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

, but it allows for electrically or hydraulically powered retractable gear. For reasons of weight, aerobatics are preferably done only with the fixed gear. Two

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

s have been built, both with electrically-powered retractable landing gear, and with Lycoming O-360 engines. They made their first flights in 1992. In 1998 Jurca started studying a four-seat development, the MJ-58, but he was busy with developing the Jurca MJ-70 Gnatsum, and nothing came of it.

Specifications (MJ-53 Autan)

References

External links

Avions Marcel Jurca website
{{Jurca aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Jurca aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft