In November 2022 Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Scoda Aeronautica announced the imminent debut of its new Super Petrel XP.
An evolution of the company’s 2002-vintage Super Petrel, the new Rotax 915is-powered amphibious seaplane conforms—ostensibly—to the FAA’s LSA regulatory requirements. Scoda’s confidence in the design is evinced by the fact the plane-maker has set forth the XP is to replace the legacy Super Petrel LS as its flagship model.
The XP was conceived of and built from the ground up to accommodate Rotax’s 915is aircraft engine. Scoda will continue to offer Rotax’s 912is as an option for XP buyers; the 912ULS and 914UL powerplants, however, are not compatible with the XP’s engine-bay/mount architecture.
Among the new features with which Scoda has appointed the XP are larger wheels, the lower rotational rates of which promise to save tire-wear, and a reworked canopy design that affords easier cockpit ingress.
The XP’s lineage can be traced back to Tisserand Hydroplum, a single-seat, wooden amphibian first flown in 1983. In 1987, Société Morbihannaise d'Aéro Navigation (SMAN) acquired production rights to the Hydroplum II—the two-seat, Rotax-532-powered successor of the original Hydroplum—and took to marketing the contraption as the Petrel. In 2002, the Super Petrel was developed by Edra Aeronautica. Since 2014, the Super Petrel LS has been manufactured by Scoda Aeronáutica of Ipeúna, São Paulo, Brazil.
The Super Petrel LS is an amphibious biplane powered by a single, dorsally-mounted, centerline-thrust engine turning an aft-facing, three-blade Arplast-Helice pusher-propeller. The aircraft’s single-step hull is an epoxy/carbon monocoque with a carbon-fiber boom supporting an all carbon-composite, cruciform empennage. The machine’s center section is supported by a pylon that also houses the engine mounting.
The Super Petrel LS’s constant-chord, zero-sweep wings comprise tubular aluminum-alloy spars and PVC foam ribs, and sport angled winglets. Ailerons are present on the upper-wings exclusively. With an empty weight of only 705-pounds, the Super Petrel LS manages a respectable 1,323-pound Maximum Gross Take-Off weight (MGTOW). Notwithstanding its anodyne 110-knot Vne and 95-knot cruise-speeds, the Super Petrel LS’s docile thirty-knot stall speed speaks to a high degree of stability—much as its 510-nautical-mile range and ten-thousand-foot service-ceiling speak to an impressive degree of utility.
The extent to which the new XP model’s specifications and performance conform to those of its predecessor remains to be seen. Photos of the new aircraft reveal numerous cosmetic changes—but any aerodynamicist worth his salt will counsel caution to those inclined to conflate good-looks and superior performance. Consider the B-58 Hustler...
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