The Butterfly Monarch is an American
autogyro, designed and produced by
The Butterfly LLC
The Butterfly LLC was an American aircraft manufacturer specializing in homebuilt gyroplanes. Complete gyroplane kits were offered for the homebuilt market, as well as completed aircraft marketed for law enforcement surveillance. "The" was pre ...
of
Aurora, Texas
Aurora is a city in Wise County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,390 in 2020.
Geography
Aurora is located at (33.055942, –97.509615). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.
Demog ...
. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for
amateur construction.
[Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al.: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 177. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ]
Design and development
The Monarch was designed to comply with the US ''Experimental - Amateur-built'' rules. It features a single main rotor, a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield,
tricycle landing gear with
wheel pants and a twin cylinder, liquid-cooled,
two-stroke,
dual-ignition Rotax 582 engine in
pusher configuration
In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...
.
The Monarch's
fuselage is made from metal tubing and mounts a two-bladed main rotor with a diameter of , with an electric pre-rotator to shorten take-off distances. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . The tail surfaces are made from
Kevlar. The
landing gear is of
4130 steel
41xx steel is a family of SAE steel grades, as specified by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Alloying elements include chromium and molybdenum, and as a result these materials are often informally referred to as chromoly steel (common ...
construction, incorporates springs and has a long stroke of to allow almost vertical landings, including descent rates of 500 ft/min (2.5 m/s) at touchdown. The tricycle landing gear is supplemented by a triple tail
caster.
Optional equipment available includes a
cockpit fairing with a windshield, rotor brake, auxiliary fuel tank and an airshow smoke system.
Operational history
By December 2012 eight examples had been
registered in the United States with the
Federal Aviation Administration.
Specifications (Monarch)
References
External links
*
Official Monarch photos{{The Butterfly aircraft
2000s United States sport aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft
Single-engined pusher autogyros