Parascender II

The Parascender II is an American powered parachute that was designed and produced by Parascender Technologies of Kissimmee, Florida. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.

Design and development
The Parascender II was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles trainer exemption and also the US Experimental - Amateur-built aircraft rules. It features a 520.0 sqft parachute-style wing, two-seats-in-tandem accommodation, tricycle landing gear and a single 50 hp Rotax 503 engine in pusher configuration.

The aircraft carriage is built from bolted aluminium tubing, with a unique octagonal dual-tube propeller guard. In flight steering is accomplished via foot pedals that actuate the canopy brakes, creating roll and yaw. On the ground the aircraft has lever-controlled nosewheel steering. The main landing gear incorporates spring rod suspension and was changed to composite suspension in 1993. The aircraft has a typical empty weight of 250 lb and a gross weight of 720 lb, giving a useful load of 470 lb. With full fuel of 10 u.s.gal the payload for the pilot, passengers and baggage is 410 lb.

The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a 50 hp engine is 150 ft and the landing roll is 50 ft.

The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit as 20 hours.

Operational history
In April 2015 six examples were registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration, although a total of eight had been registered at one time.