Mountaineer Trikes Mite-Lite

The Mountaineer Trikes Mite-Lite is a family of American flying wing ultralight trikes that was designed and produced by Mountaineer Trikes. The aircraft were supplied as a kit for amateur construction.

Design and development
The Mite-Lite was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of 254 lb. The Mite-Lite has a standard empty weight of 200 lb. It features a cable-braced hang glider-style high-wing, weight-shift controls, a single-seat, open cockpit, tricycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration.

The Mite-Lite is very minimalist lightweight trike, made from bolted-together aluminum tubing, with its single surface wing covered in Dacron sailcloth. Its wing is supported by a single tube-type kingpost and uses an "A" frame control bar. The wing is a large 205 sqft area and is suitable for power-off soaring flight. The aircraft can be disassembled by one person in 45 minutes for ground transportation on a car top or for storage. The factory standard powerplant supplied with the Mite-Lite was the 28 hp Rotax 277 single cylinder, two-stroke aircraft engine.

Production of all models ended when the company went out of business in 1998.

Variants

 * Mite-Lite
 * Initial model, 28 hp Rotax 277 engine


 * Solo 175
 * Improved model, 50 hp Rotax 503 engine. 25 reported as flying by 1998.


 * Dual 175
 * A Solo 175 with a second seat fitted, 50 hp Rotax 503 engine. Ten reported flying by 1998.