The Pop's Props Cloudster is a single seat, open-cockpit,
parasol 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 wings.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...
, single-engine
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 wings.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...
, that was first flown in 1995. The aircraft was produced by
Pop's Props
Pop's Props was an American aircraft manufacturer, founded by Scott Land in about 1994 and based in Cooksville, Illinois. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of ultralight aircraft in the form of plans and kits for Homebuilt a ...
of
Cooksville, Illinois and made available as plans or in
kit form. The company is no longer in business and kit production has been transferred to
Simplex Aeroplanes of
Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
[Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page B-65. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. ][Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook'', page 222. BAI Communications. ][Downey, Julia: ''1999 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 15, Number 12, December 1998, page 62. Primedia Publications. ISSN 0891-1851]
The aircraft was designed for the
FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles
Ultralight aircraft exist outside of the United States. In most countries, ultralights are a class of aircraft. A completely different legal concept is valid within the USA. The FAA makes explicitly clear that ultralight vehicles are not air ...
category, including the category's empty weight limit. The standard empty weight of the Cloudster is .
Design and development
The aircraft was designed for safe low and slow flying from unimproved surfaces.
The Cloudster is constructed of wood and covered in
aircraft fabric. The landing gear is
conventional with sprung main gear and a tailwheel. The wing is
strut-braced with two parallel main struts and
jury struts per side. Available engines include the liquid-cooled engine
Kawasaki 340-LC of , the
Half VW of as well as several
Rotax and
Cuyuna engines. The designer recommended power range is .
Due to the laborious wood and fabric construction, builder completion time is estimated at 400 man-hours from the kit. The kit can be ordered as one kit or as several sub-kits.
The Cloudster was later developed into the
Zing.
Variants
;Pop's Props Cloudster
:Original version with wingspan and stall speed.
;Simplex Cloudster
:Improved version with wingspan and stall speed introduced in February 2011. The wing was shortened to reduced
adverse yaw effects.
Specifications (Pop's Props Cloudster)
See also
References
External links
*
{{Pops Props
1990s United States ultralight aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft
Cloudster
High-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1995