The Maupin Carbon Dragon is an American, high-wing, single-seat, glider

Glider (sailplane)

A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...

 that was designed by Jim Maupin and made available as plans for amateur construction

Homebuilt aircraft

Also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, homebuilt aircraft are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch," from plans, or from assembly kits.-Overview:...

. Plans are no longer available.

Design and development

The Carbon Dragon was intended to take advantage of of the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles regulations that classify unpowered aircraft with empty weights of 155 lb (70 kg) or less as hang gliders and thus allow them to be flown without a pilot license, Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Aviation Administration

The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

 aircraft registration

Aircraft registration

An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...

 or a Certificate of Airworthiness. The Carbon Dragon's standard empty weight is 145 lb (66 kg) and the aircraft has a gross weight of 335 lb (152 kg), giving a payload of 190 lb (86 kg). The designer said "The philosophy behind its development was to try to bring foot launch soaring performance up into the lower performance range of sailplanes." The Carbon Dragon was intended to be similar in concept to the Hall Vector 1

Hall Vector 1

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.

The original design was intended to be a much more complex aircraft, as Maupin explained:
As a result the aircraft was redesigned to its final configuration, a simpler and lighter aircraft with a 44 ft (13.4 m) span wing.

The Carbon Dragon is predominantly a conventional wood and doped aircraft fabric glider, making judicious use of carbon fiber

Carbon fiber

Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...

 in the wing spar caps, control rods, flaperon

Flaperon

A flaperon is a type of aircraft control surface that combines aspects of both flaps and ailerons. In addition to controlling the roll or bank of an aircraft as do conventional ailerons, both flaperons can be lowered together to function similarly to a dedicated set of flaps...

s and the elliptical tail boom to save weight. The control tubes are constructed by laying up the carbon fiber on aluminium tubing and then, when the carbon has cured, dissolving the aluminium with swimming pool acid. The cockpit is totally enclosed and the original design called for a cockpit width of 17 in (43 cm) at the hips and 25 in (64 cm) at the shoulder, although some have been modified to accommodate pilots of larger dimensions. The main aircraft structure consists of dual triangular torque boxes on each side of the fuselage

Fuselage

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...

. The wing employs a Culver SD airfoil

Airfoil

An airfoil or aerofoil is the shape of a wing or blade or sail as seen in cross-section....

 that was designed by Irv Culver for the project and full-span flaperons of 30% chord. The flaperons can deploy from −5° to +15° as flaps

Flap (aircraft)

Flaps are normally hinged surfaces mounted on the trailing edges of the wings of a fixed-wing aircraft to reduce the speed an aircraft can be safely flown at and to increase the angle of descent for landing without increasing air speed. They shorten takeoff and landing distances as well as...

 and −4° to +16° as aileron

Aileron

Ailerons are hinged flight control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. The ailerons are used to control the aircraft in roll, which results in a change in heading due to the tilting of the lift vector...

s, with a 4:1 differential. The flaperons are driven by two, vertically-mounted pushrods enclosed within the fuselage and connected to the side stick. The wing ribs forward of the spar

Spar

In sailing, a spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fiber used on a sailing vessel. Spars of all types In sailing, a spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fiber used on a sailing vessel. Spars of all types In sailing, a spar is a...

 are fabricated from 1/4 in 5-ply mahogany

Mahogany

The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....

 and aft of the spar from 5/16 in square spruce. The landing gear is a fixed monowheel, mounted on the hinged cockpit bottom door, that opens to allow the pilot to lift the aircraft for foot-launching. The aircraft was designed so that if the pilot falls while foot-launching his body will be in the rear fuselage cavity and not pinned under the aircraft. The ultimate structural load limit is +/-7.5 g

G-force

The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...

, with a +/-5.0 g operational load limit.

The Carbon Dragon was designed to be launched by foot-launch, aero-tow, winch-launch, auto-tow or bungee launch.

In October 1988 Maupin reported that the prototype had been flown by ten different pilots ranging in weight from 120 to 210 lb (54.4 to 95.3 kg), had achieved a 100 fpm (0.51 m/s) sink rate and had been launched by auto-tow, aero-tow and bungee, but had not been foot-launched. In October 1988 Maupin estimated that building a Carbon Dragon would cost US$2000 and take 1000–1500 hours of construction time.

When they were available the plans consisted of 23 sheets of 2' X 4' (61 X 122 cm) blueprints and sold for US$150.

At least one Carbon Dragon was modified to include a cockpit roof-mounted pentagonal spoiler

Spoiler (aeronautics)

In aeronautics, a spoiler is a device intended to reduce lift in an aircraft. Spoilers are plates on the top surface of a wing which can be extended upward into the airflow and spoil it. By doing so, the spoiler creates a carefully controlled stall over the portion of the wing behind it, greatly...

, similar to that used on the Maupin Windrose

Maupin Windrose

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.

Operational history

Many of the early test flights were done near Tehachapi, California

Tehachapi, California

Tehachapi is a city incorporated in 1909 located in the Tehachapi Mountains between Bakersfield and Mojave in Kern County, California. Tehachapi is located east-southeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of...

 by auto-tow using a 2000 ft (610 m) rope and these included several 45 minute soaring flights in evening convergent lift. The designer conducted many of the prototype flights himself and said of flying the aircraft, "It's great fun to fly, everything happens so slowly".

In October 1988 Maupin stated that 70 sets of plans had been sold.

In 1994 a Carbon Dragon beat a field of conventional gliders in a scheduled, non-handicapped cross-country contest. In July 1995 Gary Osoba flew a Carbon Dragon to a US National and World Record in the Ultralight Category for Distance up to Three Turnpoints for a flight of 237.44 mi (382 km). In September 1995, Osoba set US National and World Records in the Ultralight Category for 100 km (62 mi) Triangle Speed, Triangle Distance, and Out & Return Distance of 24.48 mph (39 km/h), 133.02 mi (214 km), and 115.52 mi (186 km) respectively.

Qualifying as a FAR Part 103 hang glider, the Carbon Dragon does not require FAA registration and thus an accurate number of the total completed is not available, but the Soaring Directory reports four have been flown.

Variants

Carbon Dragon

Initial version

Magic Dragon

Improved version developed by Steve Arndt

Specifications (Carbon Dragon)

See also

External links

• Carbon Dragon Technical Website