Sun Flightcraft (formally Pro-Design & Sun Flightcraft) is a former
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
aircraft manufacturer
An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology indust ...
based in
Innsbruck, founded by Herbert Hofbauer. The company at one time specialized in the design and manufacture of
powered parachutes
A powered parachute, often abbreviated PPC, and also called a motorized parachute or paraplane, is a type of aircraft that consists of a parafoil with a motor and wheels.
The FAA defines a powered parachute as ''a powered aircraft a flexible o ...
in the form of ready-to-fly aircraft for the European
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale microlight
Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...
category.
[Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 87. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485X]
Founded in the early 2000s as a division of Hofbauer GmbH, the company stopped production of its powered parachute design, the
Sun Flightcraft Air-Chopper, in about 2008, although it still supplies parts for the design.
The Air-Chopper was noted for its innovative use of the
contra-rotating
Contra-rotating, also referred to as coaxial contra-rotating, is a technique whereby parts of a mechanism rotate in opposite directions about a common axis, usually to minimise the effect of torque. Examples include some aircraft propellers, res ...
Coax-P
The Coax-P is a contra-rotating propeller developed by NeuraJet of Senftenbach, Austria and Sun Flightcraft of Innsbruck, Austria for the Rotax 503 and Rotax 582 aircraft engines for use on ultralight aircraft.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et ...
aircraft propeller
An aircraft propeller, also called an airscrew,Beaumont, R.A.; ''Aeronautical Engineering'', Odhams, 1942, Chapter 13, "Airscrews". converts rotary motion from an engine or other power source into a swirling slipstream which pushes the propeller ...
design to eliminate torque effects.
The company continues as an aircraft importer for
Airborne Windsports
Airborne Windsports, also called Airborne Australia and officially Airborne Windsports Pty Ltd, is an Australian ultralight trike and hang glider aircraft manufacturer based in Redhead, New South Wales. The aircraft are supplied as factory com ...
ultralight trikes
An ultralight trike is a type of powered hang glider where flight control is by weight-shift control, weight-shift. These light-sport aircraft, aircraft have a fabric Rogallo wing, flex-wing from which is suspended a tricycle fuselage pod driven ...
from
Australia as well as a dealer for the
Aeropro Eurofox,
B&F Fk9
The B&F Fk9, also marketed as the FK-Lightplanes FK9, is a German-designed single-engine, two-seat ultralight, first flown in 1989. It has been developed from a mixed structure, fabric covered aircraft to a wholly composite machine. It remains i ...
,
B&F Fk14 Polaris,
Evektor Eurostar,
TL Ultralight TL-2000 Sting
The TL Ultralight TL-96 Star is a single-engine, side-by-side configuration two seat ultralight, designed in the Czech Republic in the 1990s. More than 150 have been registered.
Design and development
The TL-96 Star is a single-engine, low ...
and the
Flight Design CT
The Flight Design CT series is a family of high-wing, tricycle undercarriage, two seat, ultralight and light-sport aircraft produced by Flight Design (Flightdesign Vertrieb) of Germany. The family includes the original CT and the CT2K, CTSW, C ...
series of aircraft designs, in addition to
Rotax
Rotax is the brand name for a range of internal combustion engines developed and manufactured by the Austrian company BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG (until 2016 BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co. KG), in turn owned by the Canadian Bombardier Recreational Produc ...
aircraft engines.
Aircraft
References
External links
*{{Official website, http://www.sunflightcraft.com
Aircraft manufacturers of Austria
Ultralight aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft
Ultralight trikes
Powered parachutes