Sawyer Skyjacker II

The Sawyer Skyjacker II is an American homebuilt aircraft that was designed and produced by Ralph V. Sawyer of Lancaster, California, in 1974. It first flew on 3 July 1975. The aircraft was intended as a research project and as such only one was built.

Design and development
The Skyjacker II was designed to explore ultra-low aspect ratio wing designs and in particular the stability, controllability and capability of the configuration. The design was intended to be easily scalable to much larger aircraft. It has no complex curves and was designed to be easy to construct. It features a cantilever mid-wing, a two-seats-in-tandem enclosed cockpit under a glazed canopy, fixed tricycle landing gear with wheel pants and a single engine in pusher configuration.

The aircraft is made from sheet aluminum, has an 18.0 ft span wing and is powered by a 200 hp Lycoming IO-360-A1B6D engine. The aircraft has an empty weight of 1650 lb and a gross weight of 2250 lb, giving a useful load of 600 lb. With full fuel of 50 u.s.gal the payload is 300 lb.

The aircraft proved to be stall and spin proof. Its standard day, sea level take off run is 1200 ft and landing roll is 1000 ft.

The sole example built was registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration in 1974, but its registration was cancelled in August 2013.