The Mentzel Baltic Fox is a German

ultralight 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 aile ...

and light-sport flying boat that was designed by Anno Claus Mentzel and produced by Ing Büro Mentzel of

Prinzhöfte Prinzhöfte is a municipality in the district of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, ...

, certified in 2009. The aircraft is supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft, disassembled for transport.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 61. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 63. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The Baltic Fox was designed as a specialist aircraft for use by expeditions and, as such, it was intended to be disassembled for shipping in boxes to its destination and then rapidly reassembled and flown. It was intended to comply with the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale microlight rules and US light-sport aircraft rules. It 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 co ...

, 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 ...

open cockpit, retractible

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 pusher configuration. The aircraft is made from bolted-together

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 ...

tubing, with its flying surfaces covered in

Dacron Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foo ...

sailcloth. Its span wing has an area of . The standard engine available is the Hirth 3702 three cylinder

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...

powerplant.

Variants

;Baltic Fox :Initial model, flying boat only, without wheeled

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

. Certified in Germany as an ultralight in 2009. ;Baltic Fox Sea :Second model, amphibious flying boat with wheeled landing gear, undergoing ultralight certification in 2011.

Specifications (Baltic Fox)

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.ingbuero-mentzel.de/pages/english-version.php 2000s German ultralight aircraft Light-sport aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft