The Sorrell Hiperlight is a family of single and two seat, negative stagger biplanes, designed for amateur construction.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The design was sold initially by Sunrise Aircraft of Sheridan, Oregon and as of May 2022 was produced by Thunderbird Aviation of Ray, Michigan.[6]
The single seat SNS-8 Hiperlight was designed by the Sorrell brothers in 1982 at the request of the US Rotax engine distributor to provide an enclosed cockpit aircraft design to utilize the 280NaN0 Rotax 277 engine. The resulting aircraft was a scaled-down version of the very successful Sorrell Hiperbipe aerobatic cabin biplane and with an empty weight of 2470NaN0 fit the US ultralight category. The series designation of "SNS" stands for Sorrell Negative Stagger.[7]
The aircraft is described as easy to fly, with light control forces and well balanced controls. The aircraft has full-span ailerons on the bottom wing that droop together when the stick is pulled back, giving the same effect as flaps in the landing flare.
280NaN0 is sufficient to power the design and it does not require larger engines. Since the Rotax 277 has been out of production for many years engines such as the 2si 460 or Hirth F-33 are often used.
The aircraft features a welded steel tube forward fuselage, with a detachable aluminium tube aft fuselage. The rear fuselage can be easily removed for transport or storage in ten minutes. The wings are also constructed from aluminium tubes and the whole aircraft is covered in aircraft fabric. The SNS-8 has a maximum pilot weight of 2300NaN0.
The SNS-8 kit was estimated as taking 200–300 hours to assemble.
Sunrise Aircraft developed the single seat SNS-8 into the SNS-9 two-seater. The SNS-9 is minimally larger with a wingspan of 23.41NaN1 versus the SNS-8's 221NaN1, length increased from 15.61NaN1 to 181NaN1 and gross weight increased from 5000NaN0 to 8140NaN0. The SNS-9 uses the 500NaN0 Rotax 503 as its standard powerplant and had an optional Wankel engine available.
