The Rogers Sportaire is an American

homebuilt 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 ...

that was designed David M. Rogers and produced by Rogers Aircraft of

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

, introduced in 1959. The aircraft was supplied in the form of plans for amateur construction, but plans are no longer available. Only one was built.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', page 154. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa Monica CA, 1977.

Design and development

The aircraft 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 a bubble canopy, fixed

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. The aircraft

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

is made from welded steel tubing, with the span wing made from wood, all covered in doped aircraft fabric. The engine used in the sole example is a Lycoming O-290 powerplant. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload is .

Operational history

By October 2013 only one example had been registered in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

Specifications (Sportaire)

References

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External links

Photo of the Sportaire airframe under restoration
Sportaire 1950s United States sport aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Homebuilt aircraft