The Tiger Cub Developments (TCD) Sherwood Ranger is a single engine,

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 ...

two seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

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 ailer ...

designed and built in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in the early 1990s. Kits were originally produced by TCD; later, design rights were acquired by The Light Aircraft Company Ltd (TLAC) who resumed kit production in 2009.

Design and development

The TCD Sherwood Ranger was designed by Russ Light as a successor to the Micro Biplane Aviation Tiger Cub, a foldable biplane built in

Worksop Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located east-south-east of Sheffield, close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, on the River Ryton and not far from the nor ...

. Almost 100 Tiger Cubs, which Light partly designed, appeared on the UK civil aircraft register. The Sherwood Ranger is named after a

Retford Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England, and one of the oldest English market towns having been granted its first charter in 1105. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterfie ...

, Notts inn, perhaps the only aircraft to be named after a public house. The Sherwood Ranger is a single bay biplane, its wings having 3.83° of

sweepback A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction. Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigate ...

, 3° of dihedral on the lower wing alone but no stagger. They have constant chord and are of mixed construction, with single aluminium spars and drag struts, plywood covered D-box

leading edge The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...

s, ply and

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

ribs and fabric covering. There are externally interconnected Frise ailerons on both upper and lower wings. The latter are mounted on the lower

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

longerons In engineering, a longeron and stringer is the load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural ...

and single, faired, deep chord, I-shaped

interplane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s position the upper wing well above the fuselage, assisted by central

cabane struts In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in c ...

. These latter struts, together with the wing centre section, are part of the tubular aluminium fuselage structure. Additional bracing is provided by two

flying wires In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

and two

landing wires In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in c ...

on each side. The wings fold for transport. The fuselage of the Sherwood Ranger has an aluminium tube structure, with ply formers and spruce stringers, and is fabric covered apart from

glass fibre Glass fiber ( or glass fibre) is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass. Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the inventio ...

mouldings in the engine and cockpit areas and forming the rear decking. The nose is quite slender; the separate open cockpits are in tandem with the forward one a little behind the leading edge of the wing and the other under the trailing edge, where a slight upper wing cut-out improves the pilot's view. The

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

is integral with the fuselage structure and carries a deep, rounded

rudder 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 aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

which extends to the lower fuselage. The

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

, mounted on top of the fuselage, has an unusually low aspect ratio and is almost semicircular in plan. These horizontal surfaces are thin and without

camber Camber may refer to a variety of curvatures and angles: * Camber angle, the angle made by the wheels of a vehicle * Camber beam, an upward curvature of a joist to compensate for load deflection due in buildings * Camber thrust in bike technology * ...

. Separate

elevators An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

allows rudder movement between them. The tailplane is braced to the top of the fin and to the fuselage bottom. The fixed

conventional undercarriage 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 ...

has mainwheels, fitted with brakes, on split axles mounted from a bungee sprung compression frame below the central fuselage and hinged by faired, V-form legs to its lower longerons. There is a bungee sprung, castoring tailwheel. The Sherwood Ranger first flew in 1992. Several versions of the Ranger have been built, with different maximum take-off weights (MTOW) and engines. The early aircraft were built as the LW variant, with a MTOW of 390 kk (860 lb) and with engines in the 37-49 kW (50-65 hp) power range. Engines fitted include the 48 kW (64 hp)

Rotax 532 The Rotax 532 is a two-stroke, two-cylinder, rotary valve engine, liquid-cooled, gear reduction-drive engine that was formerly manufactured by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG. It was designed for use on ultralight aircraft.Raisner, William: ''LEAF cat ...

, the similar 48 kW (64 hp)

Rotax 582 The Rotax 582 is a two-stroke, two-cylinder, rotary intake valve, oil-in-fuel or oil injection pump, liquid-cooled, gear reduction-drive aircraft engine manufactured by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG. It is for use in non-certified aircraft operating ...

two cylinder

two stroke engine A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

and the 64 kW (85 hp)

Jabiru 2200 The Jabiru 2200 is a lightweight naturally aspirated, pushrod four-stroke, flat four, air-cooled aircraft engine produced by Jabiru Aircraft. Design and development The conventional direct-drive engine is fitted with an alternator, silencers, ...

flat four A flat-four engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-four engine, is a four-cylinder piston engine with two banks of cylinders lying on opposite sides of a common crankshaft. The most common type of flat-four engine is the boxer-four engine, ...

. Some were later built as, or upgraded to, an MTOW of 450 kg (992 lb), the ST variant standard. Some of these use the Rotax 582 or Jabiru engines and one is fitted with a BMW RS1100. The LW is no longer offered but the ST is available for building from plans, kit or quick build kit. The XP variant has short span wing (7.07 m; 23 ft 0 in) to provide aerobatic capability and can be fitted with engines rated up to 75 kW (100 hp). Twelve Sherwood Rangers kits were produced by TCD until the death of Russ Light, after which the company ceased to trade. TLAC acquired the rights in 2007, flew their first prototype on 31 July 2009 and in 2010 were working on an XP prototype with the target of aerobatic approval.

Operational history

Twelve Rangers have been on the UK civil register, though not all have flown or retain permits to fly. One of these was transferred to Italy. One XP was built in the USA. By 2009 TLAC had sold two of its own kits. Construction of Rangers continues; one incomplete example appears on the Maltese register.

Variants

; LW: Original version, MTOW 390 kg (860 lb) microlight. TCD designation RA5.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', pages 251-252. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. 8 initially on UK register, from which 1 has moved to Italy. ; ST: MTOW of 450 kg (992 lb) microlight. 4 on UK register. ; XP: Short span with aerobatic potential, MTOW of 450 kg (992 lb). TCD designation RA7. 2 registered in the UK as fixed wing aircraft and 1 in USA in the experimental category. ;Lanitz Sherwood Ranger :Model produced by Lanitz Aviation of Leipzig, Germany, powered by a

ULPower UL260i The ULPower UL260i is a family of aircraft engines, produced by ULPower in Belgium. Design The UL260i series are all lightweight, four-cylinder, four-stroke, horizontally-opposed, air-cooled, direct drive engine designs that feature FADEC with m ...

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

engine. Available as a kit, quick-build kit of ready-to-fly.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 63. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', pages 66 & 84. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Specifications (ST)

References

External links

* * {{Lanitz Aviation aircraft 1990s British sport aircraft Biplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1992