The Soaring Concepts Sky Trek is an American

powered parachute A powered parachute, often abbreviated PPC, and also called a motorized parachute or paraplane, is a type of aircraft that consists of a parafoil with a motor and wheels. The FAA defines a powered parachute as ''a powered aircraft a flexible o ...

, designed and produced by Soaring Concepts Inc of Sturgis, Michigan and introduced in 2000. The aircraft is supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft or as a kit for amateur construction.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 86. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485X

Design and development

The Sky Trek was designed to comply with the US light-sport aircraft rules and is on the list of

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 ...

accepted LSAs. It features a parachute-style wing, 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 ...

accommodation,

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

Rotax 582 The Rotax 582 is a two-stroke, two-cylinder, rotary intake valve, oil-in-fuel or oil injection pump, liquid-cooled, gear reduction-drive aircraft engine manufactured by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG. It is for use in non-certified aircraft operating ...

engine in pusher configuration. The aircraft carriage is built from large-diameter 4130 steel tubing. In flight steering is accomplished via foot pedals that actuate the canopy brakes, creating roll and yaw. On the ground the aircraft has lever-controlled nosewheel steering. The main landing gear incorporates adjustable gas shock suspension. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for crew and baggage is . The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a engine is and the landing roll is .

Operational history

In August 2015, 24 examples were registered in the United States with the

, although a total of 25 had been registered at one time.

Specifications (Sky Trek)

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://soaringconcepts.com/ Sky Trek 2000s United States sport aircraft 2000s United States ultralight aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Powered parachutes