Maupin Windrose

The Maupin Windrose is an American high-wing, single-seat glider and motor glider that was designed by Jim Maupin for the Sailplane Homebuilders Association Design Contest.

Design and development
Maupin designed the Windrose as an easy-to-construct, safe, self-launching, low-cost and aesthetically pleasing aircraft project that could be flown as a pure glider or a powered glider.

The design has many innovative features and is of mixed construction using wood, foam and fiberglass. The wing is carved from solid foam and covered in fiberglass. There is no spar and instead the wing employs bands of unidirectional roving epoxied under the outer skin and joined by vertical dowels to take the compression loads from the underlying foam. The wing is of a 41.5 ft span or, optionally, a 49.2 ft span, and uses an Irv Culver custom airfoil. The ailerons are controlled from their inboard ends and there are no control runs inside the wings, which are solid.

The fuselage is built around a hollow plywood box structure that supports the wing, landing gear, cockpit and the optional Cuyuna 430 33 hp engine. The cockpit shell is made from fiberglass. A single triangular spoiler for glidepath control is mounted in the fuselage roof, above the wing center section. Both the vertical stabilizer and the horizontal stabilizer are all-flying surfaces.

Operational history
At least 14 aircraft were completed in the USA. As of July 2011 five remain on the Federal Aviation Administration registry, including four gliders and one motorglider, which is owned by the designer. All are registered in the Experimental - Amateur-built category.

Variants

 * Windrose glider
 * Unpowered version with a 315 lb empty weight and a 525 lb gross weight, first flown in June 1983.


 * Windrose motor glider
 * Powered version with a 390 lb empty weight and a 600 lb gross weight, first flown in 1984. Take-off distance at sea level on a standard day is 500 ft and the initial rate of climb is 500 fpm (2.5 m/s).