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A number of years ago Kolb aircraft was purchased by a group of investors,
who were looking to produce aircraft for the ultralight, experimental
and light sport aircraft markets. Kolb had already established itself as
a leader in the single place ultralight aircraft market, with the
Firefly and Firestar, and the two place experimental and ultralight
training market with the Kolb Mark III, and Kolbra. The New Kolb
Aircraft Company decided they also wanted to enter the light sport
aircraft marketplace. With this in mind the company purchased the design
rights for the Pelican from the Canadian manufacturer Ultravia.
After over 3 1/2 years of research and development the company
introduced the new Kolb Flyer SS, at Airventure 2008. According to Bruce
Chesnut a stockholder in the company, while the New Kolb Flyer SS, finds
its heritage in the nearly 20 years of production of the Pelican, it has
been specifically re-designed for the U.S. light sport aircraft market.
One of the things the company has done is to switch from the
fiberglass construction that was used in the original Pelicans, two
carbon fiber which has significantly increased the strength while at the
same time reduce the weight. Another change has been to increase the
size of the doors, and to move the strut location rearward allowing
easier entrance and exit from the plane.
The landing gear has also been changed to a spring style Wittman main
gear, and trailing link nose gear, which is operated by the
application of throttle and brakes. The nose cowl has been extended
which will allow for the installation of a variety of aircraft engines.
The adjustable seats have been lowered and move back which means the
craft can comfortably seat pilots over 6 feet tall. This makes the plane
very suitable for a training environment, where the seats have to be
adjusted to fit different pilot heights.
The baggage area located directly behind the seats has been extended
back another 4 inches, and because of the high backseats a door has been
added to the rear of the fuselage to allow easy access.
The Flyer SS is powered by the Rotax 912 S, 100 hp, four-cylinder
four stroke dual ignition aircraft engine. With this power aircraft
cruises along at 130 mph, stall comes in at 40 mph, and climb is a
conservative 1000 ft./m. The plane is equipped with Fowler flaps and
Breeze ailerons and can comfortably get off the ground using 10? of
flaps in about 300 feet.
With the 1322 pound gross weight of the light sport aircraft
category, the Flyer SS has a useful load of approximately 500 pounds as
a land plane.
The Flyer SS has a wet wing, with a 14 gallon tank located in each
wing, the fuel tanks are interconnected, so the pilot only needs to turn
the fuel on or off. 28 gallons of fuel gives the plane approximately 5
hours of endurance.
The aircraft on display at Airventure was the first production
aircraft, there are five others currently in various stages of
production. The planes are manufactured in Brazil, and then shipped to
Kentucky for final assembly and certification. The Flyer SS is now on
the light sport aircraft approved list. |
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