Urban Air was an

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

manufacturer based in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 166. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster OK, 2003. The company was a manufacturer of light sport and

ultralight aircraft 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 ...

and employed 40 people. The company was founded in 1998 by five partners. Their first

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

made its inaugural flight in May 1996, thus pre-dating the company by two years. It had been in the

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

and production stages since 1992, when Pavel Urban, Karel Faltus, and Ing. Miloš Mládek started design. They were also assisted by

Schempp-Hirth Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH is a glider manufacturer based in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany. History Martin Schempp founded his own company in Göppingen in 1935, with the assistance of Wolf Hirth. The company was initially called "Sportfl ...

. Production of the company's designs was taken up by Distar Air of

Ústí nad Orlicí Ústí nad Orlicí (; german: Wildenschwert) is a town in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. The town lies in the Orlické Mountains on the confluence of the rivers Tichá Orlice and Třebovka. The town ce ...

, Czech Republic.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 41. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011.

Aircraft

Urban Air designed and built two aircraft types, the Lambada and the Samba. Both can be equipped with a tow hook to tow gliders aloft. In addition,

parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...

recovery systems are an option. The aircraft are made of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

and

carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

composite materials. They are designed so as to be quickly disassembled and trailered for ground transport. ;

Lambada Lambada () is a dance from State of Pará, Brazil. The dance became internationally popular in the 1980s, especially in the Philippines, Latin America and Caribbean countries. It has adopted aspects of dances such as forró, salsa, merengue, m ...

:The Lambada, officially called the UFM 13 Lambada, was the company's first airplane. It had been in design stages since 1992, and the prototype's first flight was on 23 May 1996. The design was based on that of gliders so as to enhance performance. The aircraft comes with wing extenders that increase the wingspan to 15 meters. It also has flaps and spoilers. It is a single-engine,

taildragger 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 ...

monoplane 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 confi ...

.Simpson, 2005, p. 301 Urban Air Samba XXL N19UA Lakeland FL 23

;

Samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havin ...

:The Samba was the company's second aircraft. It took off on its first

test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

flight in June 1999. It is made primarily of carbon laminate. The Samba is, like the Lambada, a single-engine monoplane, but has

tricycle 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 ...

instead of the traditional taildragger gear. An improved version, the Samba XXL has been in production since 2004.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *

External links

{{commons category, Urban Air
Official website archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Aircraft manufacturers of the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia

Aircraft

See also

References

External links