Belite Aircraft, as the name implies, for many years has focused its energy on producing extremely light aircraft designs. At the 2017 Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring this week, company president James Wiebe announced a new model constructed of a material common in the aerospace industry but little used in light general aviation: aluminum honeycomb.
The material is made of thin aluminum sheets bonded over a layer of aluminum honeycomb cells. Sheets of it can be cut into parts and used just like sheets of aluminum or plywood. In this podcast recorded at the show Thursday, Wiebe told AVweb that the point of the new kit isn’t to break new aerodynamic ground but to advance the cause of lightweight construction. The finished weight of the airplane—a two-seat experimental—will be under 400 pounds. It’s a high-wing taildragger and can be fitted with a two- or four-stroke engine. The kit will be available later this year.
