The Hummel Ultracruiser (also variously called the Ultra Cruiser and UltraCruiser) is an American

amateur-built 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 ...

, designed by Morry Hummel and produced by Hummel Aviation. The aircraft is supplied as a kit or plans for amateur construction or as a complete ready-to-fly aircraft.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 56. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 111. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The Ultracruiser is a development of the heavier

Hummel Bird The Hummel Bird is an experimental/amateur built aircraft designed by Morry Hummel and produced by Hummel Aviation of Byran, Ohio, United States. It is a single-seat, single-engine, all-metal airplane typically powered by a 1/2 VW engine in the ...

, 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, including the category's maximum empty weight of . The aircraft has a standard empty weight of . The Ultracruiser 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 open, or optionally enclosed, cockpit that is wide, 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 ...

, or optionally

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 engine 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 sheet

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 ...

. Its span wing employs a Harry C. Riblett GA30-618 airfoil and has an area of . The aircraft's recommended engine power range is and standard engines used include the 1/2 VW four-stroke powerplant. Construction time from the supplied kit is estimated as 420 hours.

Operational history

By December 2011 100 examples had been completed and flown.

Variants

;Ultracruiser :Base model for the US

category, powered by a 1/2 VW. ;Ultracruiser Plus :Model for larger and heavier pilots, powered by a

Volkswagen air-cooled engine The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinders, cast aluminum alloy cylinder heads and pistons, magnesium-alloy crankcase, and forged steel crankshaft and ...

, for the US experimental amateur-built category.

Specifications (Ultracruiser)

References

External links

* {{Hummel Aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Ultralight aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Hummel Aviation aircraft