Slepcev Storch

Design and development

The aircraft was first flown in 1994. It was originally manufactured by Slepcev's company, Slepcev Aircraft Industry of Beechwood, New South Wales, Australia. The company was later renamed Storch Aviation Australia. The aircraft was Type-certified in 1999 to the Joint Airworthiness Requirements - Very Light Aircraft (JAR-VLA) standard. Production then moved to Serbia where a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale microlight category model was developed.

Like the original Fi 156, the Slepcev Storch features a strut-braced high-wing, a two-seats-in-tandem enclosed cockpit, with extensive glazing, fixed conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration. It is made from welded steel tubing with its flying surfaces fashioned from sheet aluminium and covered in doped aircraft fabric. The ultralight version has a 10 m (32.8 ft) span wing with an area of 15 m² (160 sq ft), large flaps and leading edge slots. The wings are supported by V-struts and jury struts. Engines fitted vary by model.

Operational history

The designer has a keen interest in Second World War history and wanted to use an example of his Storch design to re-enact the 12 September 1943 rescue of Benito Mussolini by Otto Skorzeny and his SS commandos from his imprisonment by Italian partisans on the Gran Sasso mountain. It took Slepcev a year to gain Italian approvals for the flight and on 24 August 1996, he landed a Storch Mk 4 at the site, 53 years after the original dramatic rescue had taken place.

Variants

Storch/Storch Mk 4

Homebuilt kit version, powered by a 100 hp (75 kW) Rotax 912ULS or 115 hp (86 kW) Rotax 914, with a gross weight of 550 kg (1,213 lb). Certification includes Australian and Spanish JAR-VLA. Available as a kit or as ready-to-fly.

Storch Microlight

FAI compliant microlight 3/4 sized version, powered by a 100 hp (75 kW) Rotax 912ULS, with a gross weight of 450 kg (992 lb). Available as a kit or as ready-to-fly.

Super Storch

Full scale homebuilt kit version, powered by a 180 hp (134 kW) Lycoming O-360, with a gross weight of 862 kg (1,900 lb). Available as a kit only.

Storch Moose

Full scale homebuilt kit version, powered by a 360 hp (268 kW) Vedeneyev M14P, with a gross weight of 1,500 kg (3,307 lb). Available as a kit only.

Specifications (Microlight)

Data from Bayerl

General characteristics

Crew: one

Capacity: one passenger

Wingspan: 10 m (32 ft 10 in)

Wing area: 15 m² (160 sq ft)

Gross weight: 450 kg (992 lb)

Fuel capacity: 40 litres (8.8 imp gal; 11 US gal)

Powerplant: 1 × Rotax 912ULS four cylinder, liquid and air-cooled, four stroke aircraft engine, 75 kW (101 hp)

Performance

Maximum speed: 150 km/h (93 mph; 81 kn)

Cruise speed: 133 km/h (83 mph; 72 kn)

Stall speed: 40 km/h (25 mph; 22 kn)

Rate of climb: 6 m/s (1,200 ft/min)