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Milholland Legal Eagle

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The Milholland Legal Eagle is an American high wing, strut-braced, single engine, tractor configuration, conventional landing gear-equipped ultralight aircraft that is available as plans from Better Half VW of Brookshire, Texas and also produced in kit form by J&N Bolding Enterprises of Baytown, Texas and intended for amateur construction.

Contents

The Legal Eagle is so named because it is capable of being built in legal compliance with the United States FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles regulations, even when equipped with a four stroke engine.

Design and development

The Legal Eagle features an open cockpit and is powered by a 30 hp (22 kW) Half VW engine.

The design features a fuselage of welded 4130 steel tubing, mated to an all-wood wing made from spruce. The struts and tail surfaces are made from 6061 T6 aluminium tubing. The flying surfaces are covered with doped aircraft fabric. The rear fuselage is normally left as an open truss structure to save weight and to ensure that the aircraft does not exceed the FAR 103 maximum speed of 55 knots (102 km/h; 63 mph). Like the fuselage, the taildragger landing gear is sprung steel.

The aircraft has been developed into several variants of the basic design including the XL version for larger pilots and a two-seat ultralight trainer and Light-sport aircraft.

Variants

Legal Eagle
Basic model with a 244 lb (111 kg) empty weight, powered by a 30 hp (22 kW) Half VW engine
Legal Eagle XL
Model for larger pilots with a wider and taller seat, greater wing area and longer tail. 246 lb (112 kg) empty weight
Double Eagle
Model with two seats in side-by-side configuration with a 385 lb (175 kg) empty weight and a 900 lb (408 kg) gross weight. Designed as an ultralight trainer and Light Sport Aircraft. Powered by a 60 hp (45 kW) Volkswagen air-cooled engine giving a 70 mph (113 km/h) cruise speed.

Data from Cliche, Better Half VW and Kitplanes

General characteristics

  • Crew: one
  • Length: 13 ft 0 in (3.96 m)
  • Wingspan: 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
  • Height: 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
  • Wing area: 107 sq ft (9.9 m2)
  • Empty weight: 244 lb (111 kg)
  • Gross weight: 500 lb (227 kg)
  • Fuel capacity: 5 US gallons (38 litres)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Half VW horizontally opposed twin-cylinder, four-stroke, single ignition aircraft engine, 30 hp (22 kW)
  • Propellers: 2-bladed Culver wooden

    • Performance

  • Maximum speed: 60 mph (97 km/h; 52 kn)
  • Cruise speed: 50 mph (80 km/h; 43 kn)
  • Stall speed: 25 mph (40 km/h; 22 kn)
  • Never exceed speed: 80 mph (129 km/h; 70 kn)
  • Range: 100 mi (87 nmi; 161 km)
  • Rate of climb: 300 ft/min (1.5 m/s)
  • Wing loading: 4.7 lb/sq ft (23 kg/m2)

    • Avionics

  • none

    • References

    Milholland Legal Eagle Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA