The MFI BA-12 Sländan is a single seat

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

of pod and high boom configuration and with a butterfly tail. It was designed and built in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in the 1980s and led to a two-seat, slightly larger, development called the BA-14.

Design and development

The Sländan () was the first Swedish microlight apart from glider based types. It is built from

composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

s, with a square section beam formed in two halves supporting the engine well ahead of the wing

leading edge The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts the air;Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil sectio ...

and extending aft continuously to the tail. The wings, rectangular in plan and with a high

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

(10:1), are attached to the beam with dihedral of 1.5°.

Aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

s cover 30% of the

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...

. The wing has two pressed spars,

foam Foams are two-phase materials science, material systems where a gas is dispersed in a second, non-gaseous material, specifically, in which gas cells are enclosed by a distinct liquid or solid material. Note, this source focuses only on liquid ...

filled

glass fibre Glass fiber ( or glass fibre) is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass. Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the inventio ...

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs () are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the thoracic cavity, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ...

s and

Kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s as ...

filled glass fibre

sandwich A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...

skins. The butterfly tail surfaces are also rectangular and assisted by a short ventral fin with the same chord as the

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lift (force), lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters ...

. The round nosed, single seat cabin is formed from six bonded pieces and mounted on the boom with its windscreen at the wing

, placing the pilot below the wing at about one quarter chord. The sides are normally open though complete enclosure is an option. On each side a forward leaning bracing

strut A strut is a structural component commonly found in engineering, aeronautics, architecture and anatomy. Struts generally work by resisting longitudinal compression, but they may also serve in tension. A stay is sometimes used as a synonym for ...

runs from the lower rear cabin to the front wing spar. The Sländan has a short, fixed,

tricycle undercarriage Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...

with a steerable nosewheel; the mainwheels, fitted with brakes, are mounted on straight steel

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

legs from the lower fuselage. There is a protective

tailskid Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

on the tip of the underfin. The prototype Sländan was initially powered by a (

König SD 570 The König SD 570 is a four-cylinder, two-stroke, single ignition radial aircraft engine designed for powered paragliders, powered parachutes and single place ultralight trikes.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Editi ...

4-cylinder

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 of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a four-stroke engine which re ...

engine though there were plans to replace this with a Lotus Magnum 2.25 when this type became available. At least three examples have been fitted with

Rotax Rotax is the brand name for a range of internal combustion engines developed and manufactured by the Austrian company BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG (until 2016 BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co. KG), in turn owned by the Canadian Bombardier Recreational Prod ...

engines. The Sländan first flew in 1984 and by February 1985 MFI were assembling five more. It was agreed that later aircraft should be produced by the Royal Swedish Aero Club using MFI's moulds and tools. It was intended to market the Sländan in both flyaway and kit form. At about the same time, in a collaboration between MFI and

FFK Aerotech FFK may refer to: * Curaçao Football Federation (Papiamento: ') * Faye Fang Kaew, a Thai pop trio * Falköpings FK, a Swedish football club * Finnmark, a county of Norway * Football Federation of Kazakhstan * Football Federation of Kosovo * Fred ...

, Andreasson was developing a slightly larger, two seat version called the FFV Aerotech BA-14 Starling.

Operational history

Three Rotax powered, Swedish registered Sländans appear on the mid-2010 civil aircraft registers of Europe excluding Russia.

Aircraft on display

Sländan ''SE-YKA'' is on display at the ''Aeroseum'' at Gothenburg City Airport.

Variants

;BA-12 Sländan: Single seat version. ;FFV Aerotech BA-14 Starling: Side-by-side version with

Rotax 532 The Rotax 532 is a two-stroke cycle, two-stroke, two-cylinder, rotary valve engine, liquid-cooled, gear reduction-drive engine that was formerly manufactured by Rotax, BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG. It was designed for use on ultralight aircraft.Ra ...

engine. Wing span increased by with more rounded tips. Flaps added. Tailplane span also increased and tips rounded, with horn balanced elevators.

Specifications (BA-12 Sländan)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MFI BA-12 Slandan 1980s Swedish civil aircraft Ultralight aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft V-tail aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1984