Ultralight Helicopter Debuts at Oshkosh

By ANN Correspondent John Ballantyne

The Mosquito Ultralight Helicopter was publicly exhibited for the first time this year at EAA's Air Venture. It's not hocus-pocus: this is a real helicopter with a driven rotor and a tail rotor. It flew several times and drew a lot of attention.

Innovator Technologies make the Mosquito in Calgary (Alberta), Canada. The unit at Air Venture is the first production ship, officially Mosquito #1. (The original prototype was sold after gaining 105 hours of flight time. This is the second Mosquito and the company has begun production with 17 orders in queue, a company rep told me.)

It's a quick kit:

The factory reports that this helicopter is sold in kit form only, and they estimate build time as '200 hours.' [Depending on your tools, facility, and experience, it's probably a reasonable esimate, provided the parts and instructions (which we didn't review) match up --ed.]

Pulls its weight -- and then some

The Mosquito features an 18-foot diameter main rotor and a 40-inch tail rotor. It weighs the Part 103 limit, 254 lbs (according to factory specs), with a gross weight of 550 lbs -- resulting in a payload (pilot and 5 gallons max of fuel) of 270 lbs. The Mosquito is powered by a Hirth 2706, 2 cylinder, 2 cycle, 65 horsepower engine. The factory reports a max speed of 63 mph, and cruise speed of 63 mph. [Part 103 says the ultralight vehicle may not have a top speed in excess of 63mph, 100kph --ed.]

What about Sport Pilot?

"The FAA proposed Sport Pilot rule doesn't affect us much because it does not include helicopters," said the company representative. "The Mosquito, with its carbon fiber boom, meets the Part 103 (ultralight) requirements, so there is no real need for rule change to fly this machine," the spokesman concluded.

FMI: www.mosquitoheli.com