The Y2Fly Seahawk is an American amphibious

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

ultralight trike that was designed and produced by

Y2Fly Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some auth ...

Point Harbor, North Carolina Point Harbor is an unincorporated community located in Currituck County, North Carolina, United States. The community is unincorporated but has an estimated permanent population of approximately 100. The community, along with Southern Shores, NC, ...

. The aircraft was supplied as a completed aircraft.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page C-23. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001.

Design and development

The Seahawk features a cable-braced

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

-style

high wing 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 ...

, weight-shift controls, a two-seats-in- tandem, open cockpit, a

trimaran A trimaran (or double-outrigger) is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls (or "floats") which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recreati ...

hull and a single 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 aircraft hull is made from

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 ...

, with stainless steel fittings. The wing and its supporting structure are made from bolted-together

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

tubing, with the single surface wing covered in

Dacron Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods ...

sailcloth and supported by a single tube-type kingpost. The Seahawk uses an "A" frame control bar for weight-shift control. The hull was carefully designed to account for the inherent lack of pitch control that trikes have while on the water. It was designed to reduce porpoising and water spray being thrown into the crew seats and propeller. The hull also provides lift in flight and allows flight at reduced power and fuel consumption. The retractable

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

is of tricycle configuration and is mechanically retracted by a lever located next to the pilot. The nosewheel retracts in front of the bow of the hull, while the main landing gear retracts beside the tri-hull. The standard powerplant supplied was the twin cylinder,

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

, liquid-cooled Rotax 582

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...

Specifications (Seahawk)

References

{{reflist 1990s United States ultralight aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Ultralight trikes