Ultralight Aircraft

The first of modern ultralights were actually hang gliders with small engines added to them, for self-launching. Braced by wires, the wings were steered by shifting the pilot's weight under the wing.

The second generation ultralights began to arrive in the mid-1970s. These were designed as powered aircraft or airplane, but still used wire bracing and usually single-surface wings. Most ultralight aircraft have "2-Axis" control systems, operated by stick or yoke, which control the elevators for pitch and the rudder for yaw -- there are no ailerons, so may be no direct control of banking (roll). A few 2-Axis designs use spoilers on the top of the wings, and pedals for rudder control. Examples of 2-Axis ultralights are the "Pterodactyl" and the "Quicksilver MX".

The third generation ultralight aircraft or airplane, arriving in the early 1980s, have strut-braced wings and airframe structure. Nearly all use 3-Axis control systems, as used on standard airplanes, and these are the most popular. Third generation ultralight designs include the "T-Bird," "Kolb" and "Challenger" families.

There are several types of aircraft which qualify as ultralights, but which do not have fixed-wing designs. These include:

Weight shift - while the first generation ultralights were also controlled by weight shift, most of the current weight shift ultralights use a hang glider-style wing, below which is suspended a three wheeled pod which carries the engine and aviators.

These ultralight aircraft or airplane are controlled by pushing against a horizontal bar in roughly the same way as a hang glider pilot flies. Trikes generally have impressive climb rates and are ideal for rough field operation, but are slower than other types of fixed-wing ultralights.

Also in the ultralight category are Powered parachutes - cart mounted engines or motor scooters with parafoil wing, similar to parachutes used in skydiving.

Powered paragliding - backpack engines with parafoil wing, which are foot-launched is another design of ultralights.

Ultralight Gyro-planes - rotary wing with cart mounted engine. A gyrocopter ultralights are different from helicopters in that the rotating wing is not powered, the engine provides forward thrust and the airflow through the rotary blades causes them to auto rotate or "spin up" to create lift. Most use a design based on the Bensen Gyrocopter.

There are a number of Ultralight Helicopter aircraft that are single-seat and two-seat helicopters which fall under the microlight categories in countries such as New Zealand. However, few ultralight helicopter designs fall within the more restrictive ultralight category defined in the United States of America.