Flies Fast And Far On Little Fuel

By Tom Woodward

What would you call an airplane that cruises at almost 193 mph, and stalls at 40 mph while burning only 4 to 5 gallon per hour… the Holy Grail of airplanes perhaps? What if it held 66 gallons and could fly for 11 hours for a range of over 2100 miles? Is that too good to be true? Is that an impossible goal? Well that airplane was at AirVenture and parked right up front just to the west of the Brown Oshkosh Arch.

The airplane is the Pelegrin Tarragon. Billed as an ultralight in Europe, the aircraft is designed in Italy, manufactured by the Spaniards in a factory by Russians in Latvia. The Tarragon will be making it’s US debut at Oshkosh this year. The aircraft is manufactured using HexPlay Prepreg technology. Prepeg is a material that is highly durable, temperature resistant, exceptionally rigid, lightweight and laid up in molds, which in the past often produced pieces of uneven quality. Greg Read, the exclusive US distributor for the Tarragon went to the factory in Latvia to investigate (and later invest) in this aircraft He discovered the molds to be unusually stable with tolerances within .00001 of an inch.

Greg found them to be so consistent he was able to take pieces from several different kits and piece them together with no variations. For a guy who spends his living working in fiberglass, even he found that to be amazing. With his previous experience he was able to close out the entire wing at the factory within two days, attesting to the simplicity of the build, which Greg says can be completed in 25 weeks! According to Greg, “70% of most airplane kits are sold before they are completed because the wife says you’re spending too much time at the hangar, so usually the kit goes.” The kit moves on to the second or third owner and the quality control suffers. Greg says his goal is “to make the kit easy to build, with all the options you want, right out of the gate.” When ordering the kit you will be able to order options like engines, instruments, avionics, etc., just as you do when ordering a new car today.  Right now you must travel to Latvia to start your build but Greg hopes to complete his building facility in Stead, Nevada within the next 6-12 months, so you can go to his factory and obtain builder assist.

So what do you get? A tandem seat aircraft that cruises at top speed of 193 mph (with the current Rotax 914 engine), stalls at 40 mph, 5+/-3 G, retractable gear, electric slotted flaps with a empty weight of 800 pounds, a gross weight of 1400 pounds, carrying 66 gallons of fuel for a duration of 11.5 hours, burning 4.5 gph, lands and takes off in 500 feet with a luggage compartment capable of carrying 50 pounds and a ballistic chute!

“It flies like a jet fighter and when you pull the throttle back it does not want to slow down. It’s the closest thing to a jet fighter.” according to Greg who flew the Tarragon from Nevada to Oshkosh.

The customer will be able to choose the engine of his choice, whether it is the Rotax, Lycoming 320, or an exotic like the Higgins Diesel from Japan. Though the cowling on the airplane Greg flew to Oshkosh looks quite compact, enlarged cowlings have already been designed to accommodate the larger engines. Even a 250 HP Mercedes turbine engine is in the planning stage which will increase the current 2000-2500 feet per minute climb to over 4500 feet per minute. With the Rotax engine Greg says the estimated operating cost will be $35/hour. Eventually the goal is to get the airplane certified in order to bring a lower-cost aircraft to FBO’s and flight schools.

Greg can sell you your ticket to the land of previously unobtainable performance numbers and provide you with a kit right now and several are already being started in Latvia. The entire kit, depending on the engine, will run somewhere in the $175K-$200K range with the non-exotic engines. If he can deliver on these numbers we might just have found the Holy Grail of airplanes!

FMI: www.tarragonaircraft.com/en/specs