Sea Era, Experimental Amateurbuilt, Single Hull Float Plane.
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- Опубликовано: 23 янв 2021
- Sea Era, Experimental Amateurbuilt, Single Hull Float Plane.
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Sea Era, Experimental Amateurbuilt, Single Hull Float Plane.
After many years of developing and testing various model race boats and aircraft models designer/builder Paul Weston settled on the low wing, twin boom lifting body configuration for the single seat Sea Era.
The aircraft is constructed using vinyl ester resin wet layup over urethane foam with fiberglass/carbon fiber composites and two sheets of 1/8 “ Popular light three-ply plywood reinforcements in the hull bottom skin. Hemlock is used for reinforcement in other high stress areas.
The construction has been demonstrated to be sturdy and seaworthy during the 50 hour flight test program. Flap deployment is linked to a ten degree change in wing incidence in order to match the delta plan form lifting body fuselage and wing characteristics of lift and pitching moment as a function of angle of attack.
The aircraft overall size was constrained to fit within a standard single car garage while on a boat trailer. The initial design and construction incorporated provisions for a tricycle landing gear, however development of this detail has been abandoned and the wheel wells have been sealed.
Five pilots have flown the aircraft, three of which had no prior seaplane experience. All have returned with large smiles and report that it flies as well as it looks. Roll response is rapid and crisp while pitch and yaw are responsive and authoritative. The aircraft displays good pitch stability with minimal trim change as a function of speed, power setting or flap position.
The aircraft handles rough water well for an aircraft of this size and the flat upper surface of the lifting body is handy for entry and exit both in the water and on the trailer.
Specifications:
Length 17 ft.
Span 23 ft.
Height 5 ft.
Weight 650 lbs. EW 950 lbs. GW
Wing cord 2.7 ft.
Lifting Body Area 62 sq. ft.
Width with wings removed 7’4”
Height on trailer 6.5 ft.
Engine Jabiru 2200 85 hp. at 3300 rpm
Fuel capacity 16 US gallons.
Preliminary performance figures:
Vso less than 60 mph
Vs1 less than 55 mph
Vne 140 mph
Vh 125 mph
Sea level cruise speed range from 90 mph at 2500 rpm to 115 mph at 3000 rpm.
Normal sea level cruise 100 mph at 2600 rpm and 3.2 gph.
Photo of prototype is available. Tell me how to post it. Aircraft has 75 hours of flight time.
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Thank you to all the people here who enjoyed the interview of Paul Weston and seeing his creation. Paul absolutely loved building and flying. Sadly Paul passed away January 19th 2022. At 95 he had an incredible life, Paul was in flight school at the end of WWII and ready to do his part in the Pacific when the Bomb was dropped which ended the need for pilots. Paul became an Architect and contractor and raised a family in Bellevue WA. His buildings are all over King County. I married his oldest daughter and as a metal fabricator and auto restorer we became very close. I was very involved in his building of the Sea Era which started as a constantly evolving scale model. The plane is presently in excellent flying condition and will likely be gifted to one of his pilot friends per his wishes. Paul always wanted to build a two seat high wing version but time caught up with him and never happened. On several occasions I read the comments you all made about his plane to him. This brought him great joy to hear the passion others have for flying and the compliments on his creation. Paul was the son of a pastor and a deeply religious man and is now with the lord. We all miss him God bless. Dave
Thanks for a good update on a good gentleman.
Sorry for your families loss. He got to a great age.
Sorry to hear of Paul's passing. I worked with him on the "high wing" version of his Sea-ERA airplane. We got a patent on his concept. We did wind tunnel tests on the model and found it to be very low drag. He was easy to work with and joy to be around.
The wingtip stall is at 8:30, it's amazing how the Sea Era held its structural integrity. Great work done by a good man. RIP
That little pirouette landing was pretty neat! Good to see it didn't disintegrate, and he didn't get hurt.
Yeah, that was a violent tip stall... Got it too slow...If you saw the " flyover", the wings have a narrow chord....long and narrow go together....short and wide go together...short and narrow...= tip stall at slow speed....
Was it a wind gust ? I only have a small screen ?
Besides that abrupt stall and fall off due to the low surface area of the wings at 8:12 the thing looks dang good in flight. Very sleek design to manage 1gal/hr cruise. I bet a modified arch wing design with hydrodynamically sound tip tanks would solve any stability issues in moderate chop as well as low speed stability. Much respect to this guy.
1 gal/h is on descend, not cruise
I am 62 years young, this guy gives me a new lease on life! I wish this guy was my Dad, there is no telling what I would have achieved. The way I figure it, I've got 30 years to design and build, I only hope that I can be half as successful as he has been. Thank you again for being such an inspiration.
Jeff, just like me...59 yrs young.... The 1st step is to roughly draw your dream/design on a piece of notebook paper...Then, like he said....Get out the books and scale it up.... Depending on proposed weight....Most planes at least a 20 something foot wingspan....Just like RC....All measurements follow the wing coz it's doing all the " heavy lifting "...Cheers!!!!
Holy flip !!!! This dude is after my heart....I have the same plan...Build a plane of my own design.. Then scale it up to full scale....gonna be called the " Mooney Star "....
Paul passed away Jan 2022 at 95 years old. The low wing airplane crashed twice. Once with the wing panel stall and another time with the wing tip catching the water. I worked on the "high wing" tandem 2 place version of this concept and wind tunnel tested it. The drag was 1/3 that of an ICON A5...
Definitely a badass looking plain very sleek looks very fast it looks sports car sexy
Can someone please pay this guy some money and mass produce these? 100-110 cruise, being able to land on the water... enclosed cockpit... ahhh
I don’t know why this interviewer is surprised that a model turned into full scale considering most planes have a sub scale model fly before the full scale.
This is hugely impressive if you assume the builder did not actually do any CFD, but perhaps they did.
No CFD
Looks intresting.
I want to go work on this guys house in exchange for him showing me how to make this. Brilliant design.
I doing a cub this way from a model kit that I love flying and working on ultralight scale
I need this.
Very Impressive. I had a Phantom III and put a Full Lotus float system on it. Flew great out of the Creek in My front yard. I 've always been interested in Seaplanes. 11 years ago , bought a LAKE-LA-4-200 Amphibian and LOVE It. Quite a joy to land in the water, then back to the land.
Are there and plans for the 1/4 scale for building an R/C version. I am big into R/C too.
Wonder if it can get down to Aventura weight for an UL class.
(Maybe on the highwing version, for landing gear)
No, would be too heavy for UL. The high wing was designed for 1600 LBS gross
Interesting but flying should not be a contact sport :) very low wing is probably inherently problematic on water, maybe a mid wing could work. You could also imagine landing gear for water. A center foil that could handle cutting into a large wave.
It's interesting to have the low wing in that the pusher prop is only dealing with airflow on the top of the wing . Not crisscrossing high and low pressure air when the prop in other high wing sea planes crosses from top to bottom of wing. Cool craft he made , thoroughly nice guy.
I am am a novis but low wings on a sea plane not sure
You show um old guy.
😁👍👍👍🤓
first
Just need to be going a little bit faster before touch down. I have a feeling that right wing had quite a bit of damage.