Parascender Para-Ag

The Parascender Para-Ag is an American powered parachute agricultural aircraft 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
A variant of the Parascender I, the Para-Ag was designed to comply with the US Experimental - Amateur-built aircraft rules. It features a 520 sqft parachute-style wing, single-place accommodation, tricycle landing gear and a single 50 hp Rotax 503 engine in pusher configuration. A 620 sqft wing was optional.

The aircraft carriage is built from bolted aluminium tubing. Inflight steering is accomplished via foot pedals that actuate the canopy brakes, creating roll and yaw. On the ground the aircraft has foot-controlled nosewheel steering. The main landing gear incorporates spring rod suspension. The aircraft has a typical empty weight of 285 lb and a gross weight of 720 lb, giving a useful load of 435 lb. With full fuel of 10 u.s.gal the payload for the pilot and chemicals for application is 375 lb. A series of dry chemical hoppers and liquid chemical tanks of 35 to 50 u.s.gal were available and the chemicals were disbursed from booms protruding from either side of the cockpit at propeller hub height.

The standard day, sea level, no wind, takeoff 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 30 hours.

Operational history
In April 2015 no examples were registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration.