The Specter Aircraft Specter II was an American

homebuilt aircraft Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

that was designed and produced by Specter Aircraft of

Bancroft, Idaho Bancroft is a city in the Gem Valley in Caribou County, Idaho, United States. The population was 377 at the 2010 census. Description The community was named after William H. Bancroft, a railroad official, and is a railroad town along Old Hi ...

, introduced in 1997. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 359. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The Specter II featured a canard configuration, a cantilever

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 ...

, a two-seats-in-

tandem 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 ...

enclosed cockpit, with the pilot under a

bubble canopy A bubble canopy is an aircraft canopy constructed without bracing, for the purpose of providing a wider unobstructed field of view to the pilot, often providing 360° all-round visibility. The designs of bubble canopies can drastically vary; s ...

and the passenger supplied only with side windows. The aircraft had fixed

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 ...

with a retractable nosewheel and a single engine in pusher configuration. The design was stall-resistant. The aircraft was made from

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

s. Its span wing, mounted wing-tip

rudders A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse ya ...

and had a wing area of . The cabin width was . The design power range was and the standard engine used was the Subaru EA82 automotive-conversion powerplant. The aircraft had a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for the pilot, passenger and baggage was . The fast-build kit was to include all the major structural parts bonded in place. The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit to be 850 hours.

Operational history

By 1998 the company reported that one example had been completed and was flying. In April 2015 one example was registered in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

, although its registration had expired in 2013. It is unlikely any examples exist today.

Specifications (Specter II)

References

{{reflist Specter II 1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States civil utility aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft High-wing aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Canard aircraft