Alisport Silent Club

The Silent Club is a single seater sailplane of Italian manufacture. It is of the FAI type DU Class glider. It is sold by Alisport ready-to-fly or kit-built as pure glider or self-launching glider. The self-launching version is fitted with a single-blade propeller belt-driven by a two-stroke engine or optionally by an electric motor.

The electric version was the first production electric-powered commercially available aircraft and appeared in 1997. It is driven by a 13 kW DC electric motor running on 40 kg of batteries that provide 1.4 kWh of energy.

The highly modified version, the Alisport Silent Club-J is a self-launching aerobatic jet motor glider shown on the U.S. airshow circuit and all over the world by Bob Carlton. It is powered by twin AMT-USA AT-450 jet engines (200 N (45 Lbf) of thrust each) originally developed for radio-controlled aircraft.

Design and development

 * The fuselage is carbon and glass fiber composite with epoxy resin.
 * The wingspan is 12 meters without winglets.
 * The flaperons stretch for 10.0 meters of the full wingspan.
 * Schempp-Hirth-type spoilers extend on the upper wing surface only.
 * Fixed or retractable main wheel behind the pilot, with shock absorber and drum brake activated via spoiler control lever aft travel.
 * The Silent Club has light ailerons, light elevator, along with a generous rudder. The roll rate is quick due to the lively feel of the ailerons.
 * Stall is predictable and recovery is simple. In level flight as airspeed is reduced when approaching the stall speed the sailplane vibrates a little, at this point decreasing the angle of attack results in airspeed increase and normal flight resumes, from a climbing attitude the sailplane stalls decisively, the nose pitches down gently and recovery is easy with stick forward.
 * Spin entry is obvious and recovered with rudder and stick.