Mountaineer Trikes Mite Lite

Design and development

The Mite-Lite was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of 254 lb (115 kg). The Mite-Lite has a standard empty weight of 200 lb (91 kg). It features a cable-braced hang glider-style high-wing, weight-shift controls, a single-seat, open cockpit, tricycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration.

The Mite-Lite is very minimalist lightweight trike, made from bolted-together aluminum tubing, with its single surface wing covered in Dacron sailcloth. Its wing is supported by a single tube-type kingpost and uses an "A" frame control bar. The wing is a large 205 sq ft (19.0 m²) area and is suitable for power-off soaring flight. The aircraft can be disassembled by one person in 45 minutes for ground transportation on a car top or for storage. The factory standard powerplant supplied with the Mite-Lite was the 28 hp (21 kW) Rotax 277 single cylinder, two-stroke aircraft engine.

Production of all models ended when the company went out of business in 1998.

Variants

Mite-Lite

Initial model, 28 hp (21 kW) Rotax 277 engine

Solo 175

Improved model, 50 hp (37 kW) Rotax 503 engine. 25 reported as flying by 1998.

Dual 175

A Solo 175 with a second seat fitted, 50 hp (37 kW) Rotax 503 engine. Ten reported flying by 1998.

Specifications (Mite-Lite)

Data from Cliche

General characteristics

Crew: one

Wing area: 205 sq ft (19.0 m²)

Empty weight: 200 lb (91 kg)

Gross weight: 450 lb (204 kg)

Fuel capacity: 5 U.S. gallons (19 L; 4.2 imp gal)

Powerplant: 1 × Rotax 277 single cylinder, two-stroke aircraft engine, 28 hp (21 kW)

Performance

Cruise speed: 35 mph (30 kn; 56 km/h)

Stall speed: 23 mph (20 kn; 37 km/h)

Rate of climb: 600 ft/min (3.0 m/s)