The Star Flight Starfire is the first aircraft in a large family of American ultralight aircraft that was designed by Dick Turner and produced by Star Flight Manufacturing, introduced in 1979. The aircraft were all supplied as kits for amateur construction.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, page E-38. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001.

Design and development

The aircraft was designed before 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 were brought into effect, but all models comply with them anyway, including the category's maximum empty weight of . The Tristar, for instance, has a standard empty weight of . The line of aircraft all feature a cable-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 single-seat, open cockpit,

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

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 ...

tubing, with the 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 is cable-braced from a single element

kingpost A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above f ...

. The landing gear features a steerable nose wheel with a bicycle-style rim brake. The powerplant is mounted underneath the wing and drives a pusher propeller. The Tristar model took 25 hours to build from the factory-supplied assembly kit.

Variants

;Starfire :Initial model with a hybrid weight-shift and aerodynamic control system, designed in 1979. ;Tristar :Model designed in 1980, with a conventional three-axis aerodynamic control system, using a

side stick __NOTOC__ A side-stick or sidestick controller is an aircraft control stick that is located on the side console of the pilot, usually on the righthand side, or outboard on a two-seat flightdeck. Typically this is found in aircraft that are equi ...

and spoilers for roll control. Revised fuselage for new control system. The standard engine supplied was the Cuyuna 430R. ;TX-1000 :Model with a conventional three-axis aerodynamic control system, strengthened airframe and a

Rotax 377 The Rotax 377 is a , twin-cylinder, two-stroke aircraft engine, that was built by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG of Austria for use in ultralight aircraft.Raisner, William: ''LEAF catlog'', pages 6-105. Leading Edge Airfoils, 1995. Development The Ro ...

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 ...

engine. ;SC-1000 :Improved model ;AC-2000 :Improved model introduced in 1984.

Specifications (Tristar)

References

{{reflist

External links

Photo of TristarPhoto of Tristar
1970s United States ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft