The Goodwin Tri-Moto is an American

powered parachute A powered parachute, often abbreviated PPC, and also called a motorized parachute or paraplane, is a type of aircraft that consists of a parafoil with a motor and wheels. The FAA defines a powered parachute as ''a powered aircraft a flexible o ...

that was designed and produced by FL Goodwin of

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and introduced in 1997.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page D-17. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. The Tri-Moto is out of production.

Design and development

The Tri-Moto had, as a design goal, creating a powered parachute carriage that can be folded up and transported on top of a recreational vehicle, in a small pick-up truck or even carried in a small boat. Folding it takes one person 20 minutes. The aircraft was designed to comply with the US

FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles Ultralight aircraft in the United States are much smaller and lighter than ultralight aircraft as defined by all other countries. In the United States, ultralights are described as "ultralight vehicles" and not as aircraft. They are not req ...

rules as a single seater or two-place trainer, including the category's maximum empty weight of . The aircraft has a standard empty weight of . It features a parachute-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 co ...

, 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 ...

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 a single 2si 430-F engine in pusher configuration. The Tri-Moto is built from

anodized Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. The process is called ''anodizing'' because the part to be treated forms the anode electrode of an electr ...

aluminium 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. I ...

tubing. In flight steering is accomplished via foot pedals that actuate the canopy brakes, creating roll and yaw. On the ground the aircraft has lever-controlled nosewheel steering. The main landing gear incorporates spring rod suspension. The aircraft was factory supplied complete and ready-to-fly.

Specifications (Tri-Moto)

References

{{FL Goodwin aircraft 1990s United States ultralight aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Powered parachutes