American Aerolights
| Company type | Kit aircraft |
|---|
American Aerolights Falcon
American Aerolights Inc. was an American
Newman was well known for his 1978 flight across the Atlantic Ocean in the balloon Double Eagle II with Ben Abruzzo and Maxie Anderson. As a result of that flight Newman received the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress. He died of pancreatic cancer on 20 December 2010 in Scottsdale, Arizona at the age of 63.[5][6]
The company produced the simple flex-wing single-seat ultralight
The Eagle design sold in large numbers, but suffered many wing failures that resulted in several fatalities as a result of the deterioration of the unreinforced
Dacron sailcloth trailing edge design. The lawsuits, as a result of the design defects, put the company out of business in about 1984, just as the market for ultralight aircraft in the United States collapsed.[3]
The company is most noted as the first manufacturer of ultralight aircraft to have one of their designs used by a police service. The
Aircraft
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
.| Model name | First flight | Number built | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Aerolights Eagle | 1975 | Single seat ultralight aircraft designed by Larry Hair
| |
| American Aerolights Double Eagle | 1980 | Two seat ultralight aircraft designed by Larry Newman | |
American Aerolights Falcon
|
1983 | Two seat homebuilt aircraft |
References
- ^ EAA AirVenture Museum. "American Aerolights Double Eagle". Archived from the originalon October 19, 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
- ^ Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. "American Aerolights Double Eagle". Archived from the originalon September 5, 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
- ^ ISBN 0-9680628-1-4
- ^ a b Virtual Ultralight Museum. "Eagle 215B". Retrieved February 24, 2015.
- ^ Glen Bledsoe, Karen Bledsoe (2001). Ballooning Adventures.
- ISBN 0-316-55360-3.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to American Aerolights.