Aeroprakt A20 Two Seat TandemTaildragger.

Taildragger Aircraft Magazine - Aeroprakt Aircraft, By Dan Johnson

In a land far away, people with a strange language are doing something good for pilots in America. They’re building some fine aircraft and coincidentally helping Yankees discover their distant land. The country is Ukraine, the city is Kiev, and the company is Aeroprakt.

Don’t call them Russians; they’re Ukrainians. The confusion among westerners stems from long isolation for a part of the world sometimes referred to as Eastern Europe. Soviet dominance for 70 years nearly smothered the Ukrainians. The Communist system created many woes such as endless rows of poorly maintained, dreary apartment buildings and dull, drab industrial areas. Even now, the economy has years to go before it becomes truly market based. Old people can barely survive on tiny government pensions. Some people work for companies that haven’t paid them for two years. 
Yet even a non-paying job gives a sense of being connected to the future. 

These are people who want to lift themselves up now that they’re freed from Communism. Many Ukrainians, especially middle-age and older people who grew up working in a state-run economy, won’t make the transition to a market-based system. It will take a generation or more before younger people with new ideas rise to positions of power in Ukraine.

But already, some have figured it out amazingly well. Welcome to light aviation in Ukraine.
Run by two Ukrainians—Yuri Yakovlev, the design engineer, and Oleg Litovchenko, the business manager—Aeroprakt has come into its own recently. Employing 40 people, the young enterprise bought and is remodeling an industrial building and will soon have a factory envied by many American aviation entrepreneurs.

It wasn’t always so.

The early years of Aeroprakt were tough. They worked hard in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds: no cash, crude facilities, a lack of tools and computers, no CNC machines, no contact with western markets where most aircraft are sold, a language barrier, and a national currency not accepted outside Ukraine. Despite these barriers, they soldiered on, designing one aircraft after another.

Then came a welcome sale in the United Arab Emirates. Unfortunately, the deal went badly and the budding capitalists found themselves sinking again. But their work had not gone unnoticed. Arab Sheik Hussein has a keen interest in aviation, and he has owned many types of aircraft. He flew the Aeroprakt in his country and became interested enough to commission a special ultralight from the company’s bright, hungry engineers.

He had seen what they could do with earlier aircraft like the A-20 Vista Cruiser and A-22 Talon. Believing in the talent and drive of Yakovlev and his engineering team, he commissioned a twin-engine ultralight. Yakovlev modified the A-20 airframe, slung two Rotax 503 engines under the wings, and the A-26 was born.

Like many others in Ukraine light aviation, Yakovlev was trained and employed by the Antonov Design Bureau. With an army of engineers, Antonov designed many of the Soviet’s most famous aircraft and built the first flying articles of them. Since production was then given to another state organization, Antonov was in a constant state of development.

Each April at the Sun ’n Fun airshow, I fly 15-20 new light aircraft accumulating photos and information about flight characteristics. Most years, I am able to select one aircraft that was my pick of the week. For 2001, my choice was the Aeroprakt A-20 Vista Cruiser. Fitted with a 100-hp Rotax 912S and flown solo, the A-20 is nothing short of spectacular. It demonstrated sustained climbs of 1700 fpm, and I made one takeoff with only 3910 rpm showing on the digital EIS instrument.

Able to slow to the mid-30s with full flaps for some fun flying just above open fields, the Vista Cruiser can accelerate to a 115-mph cruise. Sink rates with the engine idling are about 400 fpm, a lower-than-average figure even for the lighter ultralights.
I was able to sustain altitude with only 3800 engine rpm, cruising gently at 60 mph. At this setting, the Vista Cruiser can stay aloft a long time, and it is exceptionally quiet.

Takeoffs were quick and exhilarating, and all my landings were smooth. My only problem involved the effort to get the A-20 down after exercising my preference for high approaches. This is a good problem. The front seat reminds me of a sailplane. The pilot sits well out in front of the wing, and visibility is enormous. I also tried the back seat on a flight in Ukraine, and — while somewhat more cramped — it offered good visibility and a full set of controls.
Prices and options are varied and plentiful. 

Length: 22 ft 0 in (6.71 m)
Wingspan: 38 ft 0 in (11.58 m)
Height: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Wing area: 172 sq ft (16.0 m2)
Airfoil: TsAGI P-IIIA-15
Empty weight: 484 lb (220 kg)
Gross weight: 990 lb (449 kg)
Fuel capacity: 9.5 US Gallons (36 litres)
Powerplant: 1 × Rotax 503 , 50 hp (37 kW)

Performance Specifications
Maximum speed: 93 mph (150 km/h; 81 kn)
Cruise speed: 70 mph (61 kn; 113 km/h)
Stall speed: 30 mph (26 kn; 48 km/h)
G limits: +4/-2
Rate of climb: 990 ft/min (5.0 m/s)
Rate of sink: 356 ft/min (1.81 m/s)

An interview with Andy Corsetti, pilot of a Aeroprakt Vista Cruiser aircraft. 

Andy talks about his aircraft and his trip to Oshkosh Air Venture 2014.

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Ultralight Aircraft Magazine - Welcome to the Ultralight Aircraft News our goal is to cover as many aircraft expositions that host aircraft described as ultralight aircraft, light sport aircraft, experimental light sport aircraft, amateur built aircraft, ELSA or homebuilt aircraft that fit into the definition of ultralight aircraft in Canada or light sport aircraft, or experimental amateurbuilt light sport aircraft in the United States. 

These include three axis control aircraft, weight shift control aircraft, more commonly known as trikes, powered parachutes, helicopters, gyrocopters and powered para-gliders that meet the light sport or ultralight aircraft definition.

Airshows and aircraft expositions that we cover include, the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase, U.S. Sport Aviation Expo, Deland Sport Aviation Showcase, E.A.A.'s Sun N Fun, E.A.A.'s Airventure, the Midwest LSA Show, Copperstate, UPAC Convention and Aero Friedrichshafen in Germany. We try to regularly attend regional shows like the Arlington Fly-In, and Rocky Mountain Fly-In. 

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