Vintage Ultralight SR-1 Hornet

The Vintage Ultralight SR-1 Hornet is an American homebuilt aircraft produced by the Vintage Ultralight and Lightplane Association of Marietta, Georgia, introduced in the early 1980s. The aircraft was supplied in the form of plans for amateur construction, although plans are no longer available.

Design and development
The aircraft 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 245 lb.

The SR-1 Hornet features a strut-braced and cable-braced biplane layout, a single-seat open cockpit, fixed conventional landing gear with a steerable tail wheel, and a single engine in pusher configuration.

The aircraft is made from bolted-together aluminum tubing, with its flying surfaces covered in doped aircraft fabric. Its 33.00 ft span wing has a wing area of 220.0 sqft. The Hornet has the largest wing area and lightest wing loading of any ultralight of its period. The acceptable power range is 30 to 35 hp and the standard engine used is the 35 hp Cuyuna 430 powerplant. The engine is mounted between four tubes that support the tail surfaces.

The SR-1 Hornet has a typical empty weight of 245 lb and a gross weight of 600 lb, giving a useful load of 355 lb. With full fuel of 5 u.s.gal the payload for the pilot and baggage is 325 lb.

The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off and landing roll with a 35 hp engine is 75 ft.

The designer estimated the construction time from the supplied plans as 250 hours.

Operational history
The Hornet was widely sold in the United States in the 1980s.

In the United States ultralights are not required to be registered, and in April 2014 no examples were in fact registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration, although a total of two had been registered at one time.