The Southern Skies Spymotor is an American

paramotor Paramotor is the generic name for the harness and propulsive portion of a powered paraglider ("PPG"). There are two basic types of paramotors: foot launch and wheel launch. Foot launch models consist of a frame with harness, fuel tank, engine, ...

that was designed and produced by Southern Skies of

Taylorsville, North Carolina Taylorsville is a town in Alexander County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,098 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Alexander County. Taylorsville is part of the Hickory– Lenoir– Morganton Metropolitan St ...

for

powered paragliding Powered paragliding, also known as paramotoring or PPG, is a form of ultralight aviation where the pilot wears a back-pack motor (a paramotor) which provides enough thrust to take off using a paraglider. It can be launched in still air, and on ...

.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page D-28. 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 req ...

rules. It features a

paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like ' ...

-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 co ...

, single-place accommodation and a single

Solo 210 The Hirth F-36 is a single-cylinder, two-stroke, carburetted aircraft engine designed for use on ultralight aircraft, especially powered paragliders and ultralight trikes. It is noted for its extremely small equipped weight of including ex ...

engine in pusher configuration. As is the case with all paramotors, take-off and landing is accomplished by foot. Designed to be a lightweight paramotor, the Spymotor weighs and can lift a pilot up to . The propeller protection cage is made from a combination of silver-welded stainless steel tubing and

TIG-welded Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), also known as tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, is an arc welding process that uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to produce the welding, weld. The weld area and electrode are protected from oxidation or ot ...

aluminium 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. I ...

. Electric starting was a factory option.

Specifications (Spymotor)

References

{{Southern Skies aircraft 1990s United States ultralight aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Paramotors