|French-built homebuilt Cri-Cri F-PCLF at Airexpo 2007|
|Role||Homebuilt recreational aircraft|
|Status||In civilian use|
The Colomban Cri-cri (English: the chirp-chirp sound made by a cricket) is the smallest twin-engined manned aircraft in the world, designed in the early 1970s by French aeronautical engineer Michel Colomban.
Design and development
The Cri-cri features a cantilever low-wing, a single-seat enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy, fixed tricycle landing gear and twin engines mounted on pylons to the nose of the aircraft in tractor configuration. The aircraft is made from aluminum sheet glued to Klegecell foam. Its 4.9 m (16.1 ft) span wing employs a Wortmann 21.7% mod airfoil, has an area of 3.1 m2 (33 sq ft). The aircraft is also capable of aerobatics within the limitations of twin-engined aircraft.
Kits for homebuilding have been sold by Zenair of Canada as the Zenair Cricket
- MC-10 Cri-Cri
- Model with a cruising speed of 170 km/h (92 knots, 105.6 miles per hour) and a range of 750 km (466 standard miles, 405 nautical miles).
- MC-12 Cri-cri
- Model with a cruising speed of 185 km/h (100 knots, or 114.9 miles per hour) and range of 500 km (310.6 standard miles, 270 nautical miles).
- MC-15 Cri-cri
- Model powered by two JPX PUL 212 15 horsepower (11 kW) engines.
There are approximately 30 Cri-cri aircraft in airworthy condition in the U.S. and over 100 around the world as of 2003.
As with any homebuilt aircraft, the existing Cri-cri planes have often been modified by their builders, departing from the original design to a varying degree, resulting in different performances.
In June 2010, EADS Partnered with Aero Composites Saintonge and the Greencri-cri Association, presented an electric powered Cri-Cri at the Green Aviation Show in Le Bourget. The modified airframe with composite components can fly for 30 minutes at 110 km/h. The aircraft uses four brushless electric motors with counter-rotating propellers, which makes the aircraft one of the world's smallest four engine aircraft.
On September 5, 2010 Electravia accomplished a world record speed of 262 km/h (162.33 mph) for a lithium polymer powered aircraft using a Cri-cri with two electric motors (each producing 25 hp) during the attempt. The company claimed engine and cooling drag reductions of 46 percent versus the conventional combustion engine arrangement.
Specifications (MC 15)
- Crew: 1 (Pilot)
- Length: 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in)
- Wingspan: 4.9 m (16 ft 1 in)
- Wing area: 3.1 m2 (33 sq ft)
- Airfoil: Wortmann 21.7
- Empty weight: 78 kg (172 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 170 kg (375 lb)
- Powerplant: 2 × JPX PUL 212 single-cylinder piston engines, 11 kW (15 hp) each
- Maximum speed: 220 km/h (137 mph; 119 kn)
- Cruise speed: 185 km/h; 115 mph (100 kn)
- Range: 463 km; 288 mi (250 nmi)
- Service ceiling: 3,700 m (12,139 ft)
- Rate of climb: 6.6 m/s (1,300 ft/min)
- Wing loading: 55 kg/m2 (11 lb/sq ft)