The Vancil Spitz S1 is an American
homebuilt aircraft that was designed and produced by A. Vancil of
Belton, South Carolina
Belton is a city in eastern Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 4,134 at the 2010 census.
History
In 1845 a group was created to connect the Piedmont region of South Carolina by rail to the existing rail system wh ...
, introduced in the late 1990s. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit and also in the form of plans for amateur construction.
[Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 361. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. ]
Design and development
The Spitz S1 is an ultralight replica of the
Pitts S-1 aerobatic
Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...
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 ...
. It features a biplane layout, a single-seat open cockpit, fixed
conventional landing gear and a single engine in
tractor configuration.
The aircraft was designed to comply with the US
FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of . The aircraft has a standard empty weight of . It can also be placed in the ''Experimental - Amateur-built'' category.
The Spitz S1 is made from metal tubing and wood, with its flying surfaces and tail covered in
doped aircraft fabric and the
fuselage covered in sheet
aluminium. Its span wing has a wing area of . The standard engine used is the
Christine Aero
Christine may refer to:
People
* Christine (name), a female given name
Film
* ''Christine'' (1958 film), based on Schnitzler's play ''Liebelei''
* ''Christine'' (1983 film), based on King's novel of the same name
* ''Christine'' (1987 fil ...
powerplant.
The aircraft has a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for the pilot and baggage is .
Variants
;S1 ultralight version
:With a maximum speed of .
;S1 homebuilt version
:With a maximum speed of .
Specifications (version)
References
{{reflist
S1
1990s United States sport aircraft
1990s United States ultralight aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Replica aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft