1984 Colomban MC-15 Cri-cri at Cotswold Airport arp

The Colomban Cri-Cri, also spelled Cricri, is the smallest twin-engined manned

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 engine ...

in the world, designed in the early 1970s by French aeronautical engineer Michel Colomban. The name ''Cri-Cri'' comes from the nickname of Christine, one of Colomban's daughters. 'Cri-cri' 'or 'cricri' is also the French term for the sound of a cricket or a cicada, or an informal name for the insects themselves, but it is unclear if this double meaning was intended by Colomban himself.

Design and development

Colomban designed the aircraft to be easy to build and fly, and the closeness of the two engines to each other, around the centreline, meant that it could be flown by pilots only qualified to fly single-engined aircraft because even with the complete failure of one engine, with hands and feet off the controls, the only effect would be a gentle turn. The cockpit canopy was carefully designed to direct effective airflow over the tail surfaces in this situation. The plans-built aircraft was also designed to be easy to store in a garage and tow on a trailer, with assembly and disassembly each taking only five minutes. The Cri-Cri features a cantilever

low-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 ...

, a single-seat enclosed cockpit under a

bubble canopy A bubble canopy is an aircraft canopy constructed without bracing, for the purpose of providing a wider unobstructed field of view to the pilot, often providing 360° all-round visibility. The designs of bubble canopies can drastically vary; s ...

, fixed

tricycle landing 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 ...

and twin engines mounted on pylons to the nose of the aircraft in

tractor configuration In aviation, the term tractor configuration refers to an aircraft constructed in the standard configuration with its engine mounted with the propeller in front of it so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. Oppositely, the pusher co ...

. The aircraft is made from

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 ha ...

sheet glued to Klegecell foam. Its span wing employs a Wortmann 21.7% mod airfoil, and has an area of . The aircraft is also capable of aerobatics within the limitations of twin-engined aircraft.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015–16'', page 116. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. The first flight of the prototype was made on 19 July 1973 and within a few days it had proved to be easy to fly and capable of aerobatics, being stressed to +10g and -5g. It was powered by two Rowena 6507J single cylinder two-stroke engines, each giving and weighing .

Variants

;MC-10 Cri-Cri :Prototype and early examples ;MC-12 Cri-Cri :Model with a cruising speed of 185 km/h (100 knots, or 114.9 miles per hour) and range of 500 km (310.6 statute miles, 270 nautical miles). ;MC-15 Cri-Cri :Model powered by two

JPX PUL 212 JPX may refer to: * JPX (Brazilian company), a defunct vehicle manufacturer * Jpx (gene) * Japonic languages * Japan Exchange Group * JPEG 2000 JPEG 2000 (JP2) is an image compression standard and coding system. It was developed from 1997 to ...

engines.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011–12'', page 110. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X ;MC-15 Cri-Cri Jet :Model powered by two PBS VB TJ20

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, an ...

engines.

Operational use

As with any homebuilt aircraft, the existing Cri-Cri planes have often been modified by their builders, departing from the original design to a varying degree, resulting in varying performance. Most versions can climb with one engine inoperative. In June 2010, EADS partnered with Aero Composites Saintonge and the Greencri-cri Association to present an electric-powered Cri-Cri at the Green Aviation Show in Le Bourget. The modified airframe with composite components can fly for 30 minutes at 110 km/h. The aircraft uses four brushless electric motors with counter-rotating propellers, which makes the aircraft one of the world's smallest four-engine aircraft. On September 5, 2010

Electravia Electravia - Helices E-Props is a French aviation manufacturer based in Vaumeilh, specializing in the non-certified light aviation sector. At one time it produced electric propulsion systems and now designs and manufactures carbon fibre propel ...

accomplished a world record speed of 262 km/h (162.33 mph) for a lithium polymer-powered aircraft using a Cri-Cri with two electric motors (each producing 25 hp) during the attempt. The company claimed engine and cooling drag reductions of 46 percent versus the conventional combustion engine arrangement. On 9 July 2015 the electric-powered

version of the design flew across the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

hours before the

Airbus E-Fan The Airbus E-Fan is a prototype two-seater electric aircraft that was under development by Airbus. It was flown in front of the world press at the Farnborough Airshow in the United Kingdom in July 2014. The target market was intended to be pil ...

, becoming the third electric aircraft to do so. It was pulled aloft by another aircraft and did not take off on its own. The first was the

MacCready Solar Challenger The Solar Challenger was a solar-powered electric aircraft designed by Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. The aircraft was designed as an improvement on the Gossamer Penguin, which in turn was a solar-powered variant of the human-powered Gossamer ...

in 1981 and the second used electric motors powered by hydrogen.

Specifications (MC 15)

References

External links