The Guerpont Autoplum is a French

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 conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

that was designed by Maurice Guerpont. Plans are supplied by one of the first builders of the type, Roland Mangeard of

Pulnoy Pulnoy () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department The following is a list of the 591 Communes of France, communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle ...

. The aircraft is supplied as plans only for amateur construction.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 57. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485XTacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 60. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The aircraft was designed to comply 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 maintai ...

microlight rules. It features a cantilever low-wing, a two-seats-in-

side-by-side configuration 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 cockpit under an aircraft canopy with gull winged doors for access, 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 tractor configuration. The aircraft is made from wood, with its flying surfaces covered in doped aircraft fabric. The Autoplum's

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

is 50% the area of the main wing, which provides a wide

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

range and a high degree of pitch dampening. Its span wing, has an area of . Earlier examples were fitted with a Rotax 462

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 ...

engine, with later ones using the Rotax 582 two-stroke powerplant or other engines.

Specifications (Autoplum)

References

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External links

Photo of a Guerpont Autoplum
2000s French ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft