The Skycraft Scout is an Australian designed and built single-seat,
tail dragger
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...
,
microlight airplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...
, used primarily for recreational aviation.
Design and development
In July 1972 a Sydney boat builder named Ronald Gilbert Wheeler made the first flight of a minimum aircraft which he'd designed and built himself, and which he put into series production soon thereafter. At the time Ron was building
catamaran
A Formula 16 beachable catamaran
Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States
A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...
s in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
's southern suburbs. Having already develope
'Tweetie' a successful
hang glider
Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...
, Wheeler simply modified the design of the glider to have the pilot seated instead of hanging below the wings, and of course to accommodate an engine.
Marketed as the Skycraft Scout, this was the world's first commercially produced ultra light – rigid wing rather than a
Rogallo
Francis Melvin Rogallo (January 27, 1912 – September 1, 2009) was an American aeronautical engineer inventor born in Sanger, California, U.S. Together with his wife, he is credited with the invention of the Rogallo wing, or "flexible win ...
– and spawned a new Australian industry.
Ron had no experience in aircraft design and claims to have started the project on a whim in his spare time. Using sources referenced from the library at
Sydney Technical College
The Sydney Technical College, now known as the TAFE New South Wales Sydney Institute, is a technical school established in 1878, that superseded the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts. The college is one of Australia's oldest technical education i ...
and
Hurstville
Hurstville is a suburb in Southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south of the Sydney CBD and is part of the St George area. Hurstville is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Georges Riv ...
local Library he built up a working knowledge of aerodynamics. In his 1975 patent application
number 494013 Wheeler claims to have "improve
dhe flight characteristics of the rogallo wing by so cutting and sewing the fabric as to shape the wing to form an aerofoil section having an increasing angle of attack from the root to the tip of the wing as well as increasing the area of the wing at the outer span region relative to that of a conventional rogallo configuration."
The Scout was a factory-built minimum aircraft that utilised yacht fittings from his local marine shop. The early Scout was an extremely basic machine, which utilised
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 foods ...
sailcloth for the wing covering, lanyards and battens and an aluminium yacht mast as the wing spar. It was initially powered by a modified
Victa
Victa is an Australian manufacturer of outdoor garden equipment, including petrol and electric lawn mowers, edgers, trimmers, and chainsaws. They manufacture these in petrol & lithium-ion powered variants. However, Victa remains most well known fo ...
lawnmower engine and, unlike a conventional aeroplane, had only rudder and elevator controls. Nevertheless, on a good day, it usually flew.
Significantly, the Scout was the first ultralight aircraft to be covered by airworthiness regulations in the world, in this case-Australia'
Air Navigation Order(ANO)95.10issued by the Department of Transport. In 1975 Ron Wheeler approached The Department of Transport to issue an Air Navigation Order regulation for ultralight and minimum aircraft. Subsequently, the Department issued ANO 95.10 for unlicensed pilots to fly aircraft weighing less than 180 kilograms under a number of restrictive conditions, including altitude restrictions, and not to fly over sealed roads. This allowed the ultralight aircraft industry to take-off, and Wheeler went into full-time production of the Scout as a leisure craft.
Specifications
See also
*
Recreational Aviation Australia
External links
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, see also=
Powerhouse Museum's Skycraft ScoutWheeler Scout mk III in flight, related=
, similar aircraft=
*
Flight Dynamics Flightsail VII
The Flight Dynamics Flightsail VII was a recreational aircraft marketed in the United States in the 1970s for homebuilding by Flight Dynamics, Inc., most unusual both in its design and its method of construction. The Flightsail VII was intended to ...
Flex wing aircraft
, lists=
Surviving examples
Australian Aviation Heritage Centre, Darwin.Australian Aviation Museum, Bankstown, NSW.Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.Museum Victoria, Melbourne.Recreational Aviation Australia Museum, Narrommine, NSW.
Video links
Skycraft Scout Mk IIIThe Scout at CranbrookSkycraft Scout Ultralight in 1982
1970s Australian ultralight aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft