The Mariner Aircraft Mariner is an American
ultralight amphibious
flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
that was designed by Larry Seifert and produced by
Mariner Aircraft, starting in 1989. The aircraft was supplied as a kit for
amateur construction.
[Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page E-23. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. ]
Design and development
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 requ ...
rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of plus floats. In its monoplane single seat version the aircraft has a standard empty weight of . Many were registered as amateur-builts rather than ultralights. It features a multiple wing arrangement, a single-seat, open cockpit, re-positionable
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
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 nor ...
.
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 has ...
, aluminum tubing and
aircraft fabric, with a
plywood
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...
hull. The aircraft was sold in three different models. The first is a
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 ...
design, with a pusher engine mounted between the wings. Engines used include the
Rotax 447,
Rotax 503 and
Rotax 582 and
Subaru EA-81
The Subaru EA engine is a series of automobile internal combustion engines manufactured by Subaru, a division of Fuji Heavy Industries. All EA series engines are of a flat-4 design, and have always been water cooled.
Design and history
Prior ...
. The top wing of the biplane was removed and the lower wing increased in span to create a
low-wing monoplane version, available in single and two seat versions. The final model mounts the top wing only in
parasol wing configuration and features two seats in
tandem.
The company went out of business in the early 1990s after only a few years of production.
Variants
;Mariner biplane
:Original single seat biplane model
;Mariner monoplane
:Second model with an increased span lower wing and the top wing removed. Available in single and two-seat models.
;Mariner parasol
:Third model with the top wing retained and the lower wing removed and two seats in tandem.
Specifications (Mariner monoplane)
References
{{reflist
1980s United States ultralight aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft
Single-engined pusher aircraft