The Samba is a minimalist aircraft, sometimes referred to as a nanolight-trike. It was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of 2540NaN0. The aircraft has a standard empty weight of 2100NaN0. It features a cable-braced hang glider-style high-wing, weight-shift controls, a single-seat, open cockpit, tricycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration.
The aircraft is made from bolted-together aluminum tubing. The Tedlar-covered single surface wing is a French La Mouette Topless M design that uses an internal Kevlar cross-bar reinforcement in place of a kingpost and ground wires. The lower flying wires are retained, however, giving the aircraft a load rating of +6/-3g. Control is weight-shift via an "A" frame control bar.
The lack of the kingpost and associated cables allows the Samba a top speed of 930NaN0 on only 160NaN0 of power provided by a Zenoah G-25 single cylinder, two stroke powerplant. Because of its low drag the aircraft is suitable for power-off soaring flight and the engine can be restarted in flight.
The Samba can be disassembled for storage or car-top transport in 20 minutes.
