The Raisner Graffiti is an American

ultralight trike An ultralight trike is a type of powered hang glider where flight control is by weight-shift. These aircraft have a fabric flex-wing from which is suspended a tricycle fuselage pod driven by a pusher propeller. The pod accommodates either a ...

that was designed by Bill Raisner and produced by Raisner Aircraft Depot, a division of Leading Edge Air Foils of Peyton, Colorado and introduced about 1997. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 235. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. By 2014 the aircraft was no longer offered for sale by Leading Edge Air Foils.

Design and development

The Graffiti was designed with the goals of maximizing safety, performance and simplicity of construction. It was intended to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, as a two-seat trainer. It features a cable-braced

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

-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 conf ...

, weight-shift controls, a 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 ...

open cockpit with a

cockpit fairing An aircraft fairing is a structure whose primary function is to produce a smooth outline and reduce drag.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, Third Edition'', page 206. Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc, Newcastle Washington, 1997. ...

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 ...

with wheel pants 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 n ...

. 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 double surface wing 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 fo ...

sailcloth. Its span wing is supported by a single tube-type kingpost, uses an "A" frame weight-shift control bar and has a wing area of . The acceptable power range is and the standard powerplant used is a de-rated twin cylinder, air-cooled,

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 ...

, dual-ignition Rotax 582 engine, optimized for quiet operation. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a engine is and the landing roll is .

Specifications (Graffiti)

References

{{LEAF aircraft 1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Ultralight trikes Leading Edge Air Foils aircraft