Apr 262012
 

This is pretty neat… a sailplane light enough to be carried on your back like a hang glider. Made by Ruppert Composite GmbH of Switzerland, the Archaeopteryx has a span of 44.6 feet, a length of 18.7 feet, a basic empty weight of 119 pounds, max takeoff weight of 362 pounds, a minimum airspeed of 19 mph and a max airspeed (VNE) of 81 mph and a best glide ratio of 28. I wonder what sort of performance might be had by cladding the upper surface with thin PV cells and adding a small, efficient electric motor and a prop…

The price of the thing, with all the bells and whistles including the fully enclose cockpit and the emergency parachute, is about 100,000 Swiss Francs. I’m not sure what that is in Real Money, but I’m guessing it’s a lot.

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 Posted by at 9:21 pm