The Airkraft Sunny is an

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 Aircraft flight control system, conventional three-a ...

that was designed by Dieter Schulz. The aircraft was initially produced by his company, Tandem Aircraft KG of

Saulgau Bad Saulgau is a town in the district of Sigmaringen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 23 km east of Sigmaringen, and 27 km north of Ravensburg between the Danube and Lake Constance. Geography Bad Saulgau is located ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, which built about 150 examples between 1989 and 1999. After he sold the rights in 1999, it was then produced by Dewald Leichtflugzeugbau Gmbh of

Bad Schönborn Bad Schönborn is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in northern Karlsruhe (district), Karlsruhe district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the Bertha Benz Memorial Route. In 1971, two previous towns Bad Langenbrücken and ...

and more recently by Airkraft Gmbh Leichtflugzeugbau of

Beringen, Switzerland Beringen is a municipality in the canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the municipality of Guntmadingen merged into the municipality of Beringen.amateur construction or as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 23. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485XBertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 135. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485XTacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 23. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 266. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The aircraft complies with the

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The (; FAI; en, World Air Sports Federation) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintain ...

microlight category rules. It features an unusual diamond-shaped

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 a ...

, strut-braced closed wing layout, a two-seats-in-

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 ...

enclosed or open cockpit, 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 ...

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 n ...

. The upper wing is swept back, while the lower wing is straight, but mounted further aft. The two wings are joined by swept tip

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 air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

s. The

elevon Elevons or tailerons are aircraft control surfaces that combine the functions of the elevator (used for pitch control) and the aileron (used for roll control), hence the name. They are frequently used on tailless aircraft such as flying wings. A ...

s are mounted to the lower wing only. The aircraft is 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 ha ...

tubing, with its flying surfaces 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 fo ...

sailcloth. Standard engines available include many models of

Hirth Hirth Engines GmbH is an engine manufacturer based in Benningen, Germany. It is currently a part of the UMS Aero Group. Hirth began manufacturing aero engines in the 1920s, was taken over by Heinkel in WWII to develop the Heinkel-Hirth jet en ...

Rotax Rotax is the brand name for a range of internal combustion engines developed and manufactured by the Austrian company BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG (until 2016 BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co. KG), in turn owned by the Canadian Bombardier Recreational Produc ...

, BMW and

Verner 133M The Verner VM 133 is a family of Czech two cylinder, horizontally opposed, four stroke aircraft engines, designed and built by Verner Motor of Šumperk.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', p ...

powerplants, ranging from .

Variants

;Sunny Light :Version with open cockpit ;Sunny Sport :Two seat

version with enclosed or semi-enclosed cockpit ;Sunny Side-By-Side :Version with side-by-side configuration seats ;Sunny Targa :Fully enclosed version. ;Sunny Amphibian :Version with amphibious floats

Specifications (Sunny Light)

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.airkraft-gmbh.com/
Official website archive
on Archive.org 1980s German ultralight aircraft 1980s Swiss ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Closed wing aircraft