Brutsche Freedom 40

The Brutsche Freedom 40 was an American homebuilt aircraft that was designed by Neal H. Brutsche and produced by Brutsche Aircraft Corporation of Salt Lake City, Utah. The aircraft was intended to be supplied in the form of plans for amateur construction, with a partial kit available.

Design and development
The Freedom 40 featured a strut-braced high-wing, a single-seat enclosed cockpit with a door, fixed conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration.

The aircraft was made from pop rivetted sheet aluminum. Its 28.00 ft span wing had a wing area of 112.0 sqft and could be folded for ground transport or storage. The cabin width was 28 in. The acceptable power range was 28 to 42 hp and the standard engine used was the 40 hp Hirth 2702 two-stroke powerplant.

The Freedom 40 had a typical empty weight of 330 lb and a gross weight of 600 lb, giving a useful load of 270 lb. With full fuel of 10 u.s.gal in the aircraft's wing tanks the payload for the pilot and baggage was 210 lb.

To simplify construction, the design had no complex parts to make and no compound curves to form. In 1998 the plans sold for US$250.00. Completion cost for the airframe alone was estimated at US$3000.00 in 1998.

Operational history
In December 2013 there were no examples registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration and it is unlikely that any exist any more.