21 July 2015
Like an electric aircraft but put off by the price? The new SkyDock from Belite Aircraft could be the answer. The SkyDock is being launched as a prototype at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh today, Tuesday, as an ultralight.
“We’ve listened to customer concerns about price, build time and ease of construction,” said James Wiebe, president and CEO of Belite Enterprises. “The SkyDock offers Part 103 legal ultralight flying at an affordable price without sacrificing performance or the technology that is a part of the Belite reputation.”
The aircraft builds quickly and the wings detach for transport or storage. Various engine options including the electric motor will be available. Wood and aluminum parts are precision CNC-cut and no welding is required.
“I selected an electric motor for a couple of reasons,” said James. “There’s been a lot of electric airplane talk in the news, so the timing was right from a market perspective. I already owned the motors and controller. (I have a nice collection of electric motors.) The use of electric would draw attention to this new design (which can fly quite nicely on gas as well).
“I weighed the plane this morning, without batteries and I came in at about 247 pounds, and I still needed to add a couple of things to the airframe. This was disappointingly high, but is in the general neighborhood of what happens to first prototype airplanes. They get heavy.
“I’ve got an incentive to get rid of the re-drive (it’s heavy), and also to replace the motor controller with a lighter unit (I’ve already ordered and received the replacement, but not yet installed.) So the weight issue is a first article problem. There’s a bunch of airframe weight reductions that will be done as well as we progress into the third unit in production. Serial #2 is already well underway.”
