The I-80 was designed long before the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules were introduced, but the aircraft fits into the category, including the category's maximum empty weight of 2540NaN0. The aircraft has a standard empty weight of 1600NaN0. It features a cable--braced high-wing, a single-seat, open cockpit, tricycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration.
The aircraft is made from bolted together aluminum tubing, with the wing Dacron sailcloth covered. Its 351NaN1 span, single-surface wing employs a special Kasper-designed airfoil that allows both normal flight and a fully controlled, completely stalled parachutal descent mode. The wing is cable-braced from a single kingpost. The pilot is accommodated in a nylon-web swing seat. The controls are unconventional, with pitch controlled by weight shift and roll and yaw controlled by canted-outwards wing tip rudders. The powerplant is a Zenoah G-25 of 200NaN0. The landing gear is of tricycle configuration, with a steerable nosewheel that has reversed controls; the pilot pushes the right pedal to go left and vice versa.
The aircraft achieves a glide ratio of 10:1 at 230NaN0.
The I-80 can be fully disassembled for transport, including reducing the wing to a compact bag of tubing, while the fuselage cage remains assembled