Flylight Dragonfly Explained

The Flylight Dragonfly is a British ultralight trike, designed by Ben Ashman and produced by Flylight Airsports of Northamptonshire. The aircraft is supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.[1]

Development of the Dragonfly started in 2007 with the aircraft entering series production in 2008.[2]

Design and development

The Dragonfly was designed to comply with the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale microlight category, the UK Single-Seat De-Regulation (SSDR) guidelines, as well as the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules. It features a strut-braced Aeros Discus hang glider-style high-wing, weight-shift controls, a single-seat open cockpit, retractable tricycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration.

The aircraft is made from bolted-together aluminum tubing, with its double surface wing covered in Dacron sailcloth. Its 10.31NaN1 span wing is supported by a single tube-type kingpost and uses an "A" frame weight-shift control bar. The powerplant is a single cylinder, air-cooled four-stroke, 220NaN0 Bailey V4 200 engine, with the single cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke 330NaN0 Simonini Mini-3 or 330NaN0 Simonini Mini-2 engines optional.

With the Bailey engine and the Aeros Discus 15T wing the Dragonfly has an empty weight of 800NaN0 and a full fuel capacity of . With its manual, or optionally electrically retractable landing gear the aircraft can be folded up and ground transported in the trunk of a car.

A number of different wings can be fitted to the basic carriage, including Aeros Discus 15T, 14 and 12 as well as the Aeros Combat 12T.

Variants

Flylight E-Dragon
  • Electric aircraft version.
    Flylight Motorfloater
  • Simplified model with single surface wing and fixed landing gear.
    Flylight Libelle
  • High performance variant equipped with a single cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke 330NaN0 Simonini Mini-3 engine and the "topless" strut-braced Aeros Combat 12T wing.

    Notes and References

    1. Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12, page 212. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X
    2. Web site: Flylight Airsports Ltd. – Flexwing Microlights . Flylight.co.uk . 2013-07-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140216125736/http://www.flylight.co.uk/flexwing/dragonfly.htm . 16 February 2014 . dead .