SDB Karat

The SDB Karat is a Russian ultralight trike that was designed and produced by SDB of Moscow. The aircraft was supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.

SDB was an enterprise of the Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation. The SDB website has been removed from the internet and the enterprise seems to have gone out of business, ending production of the Karat.

Design and development
The Karat is a nanotrike that 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 201 lb. It features a cable-braced hang glider-style high-wing, weight-shift controls, a single-seat open cockpit without a cockpit fairing, tricycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration.

The aircraft is made from bolted-together aluminum tubing, with its single or double surface wing covered in Dacron sailcloth. It was designed to be light enough to accept any hang glider wing with a high enough gross weight. A typical wing used would have a 9.8 m span, be supported by a single tube-type kingpost and use an "A" frame weight-shift control bar. The standard powerplant is a single cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke, 28 hp Hirth F33 engine. The aircraft has an empty weight of 91 kg and a gross weight of 220 kg, giving a useful load of 129 kg. With full fuel of 30 L the payload is 107 kg.

When it was available the trike was sold as a fuselage frame and engine, with the customer providing the hang glider wing.