Midwest Questar Open Aire

The Midwest Questar Open Aire is an American ultralight aircraft that was designed and produced by Midwest Engineering of Overland Park, Kansas. When it was available the aircraft was supplied in the form of plans for amateur construction, but the plans were withdrawn on 29 June 2000.

Design and development
The Questar Open Aire was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of 254 lb. The aircraft has a standard empty weight of 220 lb.

The aircraft features a strut-braced high-wing, a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield, fixed conventional landing gear without wheel pants and a single engine in pusher configuration.

The Questar Open Aire is made from bolted-together aluminum tubing and wood, with its flying surfaces covered in doped aircraft fabric. Its 28.66 ft span wing has a wing area of 124.0 sqft and is supported by "V" struts. The acceptable power range is 30 to 40 hp and the standard engines used are small 30 hp two-stroke powerplants.

The aircraft has a typical empty weight of 220 lb and a gross weight of 450 lb, giving a useful load of 230 lb. With full fuel of 3 u.s.gal the payload for the pilot and baggage is 212 lb.

The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off and landing roll with a 30 hp engine is 100 ft.

Operational history
By 1998 the company reported that 50 sets of plans had been sold and that ten aircraft were completed and flying.