Eagle Aircraft X-TS

The Eagle Aircraft X-TS, known as the Eagle Aircraft X-Wing in its prototype form and retroactively as the Eagle Aircraft Eagle 100, is an Australian light aircraft developed in the 1980s and manufactured in the 1990s. It has an unconventional tandem wing design and a structure of composite materials. It was marketed for a range of general aviation purposes, including basic training, aerial survey, and cattle mustering. It was replaced in production by the Eagle Aircraft Eagle 150, and some Eagle 100s were remanufactured into this later model. The "TS" in the designation stood for "two-seat", in contrast to Eagle's development aircraft, the EX-P1, which was a single-seater.

Design
The Eagle 100 has a low-mounted forward wing and shoulder-mounted rear wing. The pilot and a single passenger sit side-by-side in a cockpit fully enclosed under a bubble canopy. Power is supplied by a piston engine in the nose, driving a tractor-mounted propeller. It has a conventional tail and fixed, tricycle undercarriage.

The aircraft's unusual design aimed to ensure good and safe flying characteristics in hazardous, low-altitude operations, such as on farms. It was intended to be extremely difficult to stall, to maintain good control up to the point of stall, and to be almost impossible to spin.

Construction was of composite materials throughout, although with differences between the X-Wing prototype and the X-TS production aircraft. The X-Wing was built mostly of fibreglass, while production aircraft were built from Kevlar, carbon fibre, Nomex honeycomb, and advanced resins.

Development
Composite Industries (later renamed to Eagle Aircraft) of Western Australia announced development of the X-TS in 1986.

The prototype, registration VH-XEG, first flew in April 1988, originally powered by a 58 kW Aeropower engine. During flight testing, this was replaced by a 74.6 kW Continental O-200. When testing was complete in October that year, the X-TS had flown 200 hours and met all of its design goals. Other plans around this time included the development of a 75 kW, three-cylinder, two-stoke engine to power the aircraft, and a military variant of the Eagle with provision for underwing stores and Kevlar armour as protection against small arms fire.

In 1989, Composite changed its name to Eagle Aircraft Australia and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ticker symbol ASX:EAA, now defunct). The company planned to start production of the Eagle that same year, at Cockburn, Western Australia, but this was contingent on loan guarantees from the Government of Western Australia which did not materialise. This led the company to look for overseas investment.

Overseas finance was obtained on 31 December 1990 with the signing of a joint venture between Eagle and Assets Accretion, the commercial body of the Malaysian Ministry of Finance. Production was scheduled to start on 1 March 1991.

Component manufacturing commenced on schedule. A pre-production example, registered VH-XEP, flew on 6 November 1992, powered by a Teledyne Continental IO-240-A engine. Series production began in August 1993.

The X-TS received Australian FAR33 certification on 21 September 1993, but did not qualify for a European JAR-VLA certificate. This led to some design changes, including a switch to the IO-240-B engine, and using pre-impregnated composites for construction.

Delivery to customers began in December 1993, with the first going to the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management. A total of ten X-TSes were built, of which five were later rebuilt as Eagle 150s. As of 2024, none remain on the Australian registry.

Production of Eagle Aircraft in Australia ended with the original X-TS. On 28 May 1993, the Malaysian government bought out their Australian partner and commenced relocation of all production to Malaysia.