The Explorer Ellipse is an American

homebuilt aircraft Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

that was designed by Dean Wilson and produced by Explorer Aviation of

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. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 153. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The Ellipse features a strut-braced

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 conf ...

that has an elliptical planform, a four-seat enclosed cabin with doors, fixed

conventional landing gear 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 ...

and a single engine in

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. The aircraft

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

is made from welded

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tubing with a wooden wing. The aircraft is covered in doped

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. Its span wing, mounts flaps and has a wing area of . The wings can be folded in five minutes by one person to facilitate ground transportation or storage. The cabin width is . The acceptable power range is and the standard engine used is the

Lycoming O-320 The Lycoming O-320 is a large family of naturally aspirated, air-cooled, four-cylinder, direct-drive engines produced by Lycoming Engines. They are commonly used on light aircraft such as the Cessna 172 and Piper Cherokee. Different variants ...

powerplant. With this powerplant the aircraft has a cruise speed of . The Ellipse has a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for crew/pilot, passengers and baggage is . The kit originally came with the complex wings already built and as a result the designer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit as 1000 hours.

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and

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fittings were included in the kit as standard equipment.

Operational history

By 1998 the company reported that three kits had been sold and one aircraft was flying. In December 2013 two examples were registered in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

, although at one time four had been registered.

Specifications (Ellipse)

References

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Ellipse In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in ...

1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States civil utility aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft Homebuilt aircraft