The Butterfly Monarch is an American autogyro, designed and produced by The Butterfly LLC of Aurora, Texas. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction.[1]
| Monarch | |
|---|---|
| Role | Autogyro Type of aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | The Butterfly LLC |
| Status | In production (2012) |
The Monarch was designed to comply with the US Experimental - Amateur-built rules. It features a single main rotor, a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield, tricycle landing gear with wheel pants and a twin cylinder, liquid-cooled, two-stroke, dual-ignition 64 hp (48 kW) Rotax 582 engine in pusher configuration.[1]
The Monarch's fuselage is made from metal tubing and mounts a two-bladed main rotor with a diameter of 8 m (26.2 ft), with an electric pre-rotator to shorten take-off distances. The aircraft has an empty weight of 360 lb (160 kg) and a gross weight of 630 lb (290 kg), giving a useful load of 270 lb (120 kg). The tail surfaces are made from Kevlar. The landing gear is of 4130 steel construction, incorporates springs and has a long stroke of 18 in (46 cm) to allow almost vertical landings, including descent rates of 500 ft/min (2.5 m/s) at touchdown. The tricycle landing gear is supplemented by a triple tail caster.[1][2]
Optional equipment available includes a cockpit fairing with a windshield, rotor brake, auxiliary 6 U.S. gallons (23 L; 5.0 imp gal) fuel tank and an airshow smoke system.[2]
By December 2012 eight examples had been registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration.[3]
Data from Bayerl and The Butterfly[1][2]
General characteristics
Performance
The Butterfly LLC aircraft | |
|---|---|
| Autogyros |
|