The lightest aircraft ever built

What started as a final bachelor’s project might now turn into the lightest aircraft ever built. Meet AerGo, a one-person glider that is made completely of composite materials.
It all began as a student’s idea during the Design Synthesis Exercise (DSE) in the autumn of 2017, but is now progressing into a serious aircraft. “When our bachelor project was finished, we said to each other ‘Why stop here?’”, says project lead Aydin van den Bergh. “We actually want to turn this aircraft into something real.” And so they did.
The one-person glider is now set to be redesigned into a motor-powered seaplane with a total mass of about 50 kg, that can take off and land from water and use less than 5 kW when flying. One of the key parts of the design is that the weight of the aircraft is a little less than 50 kg, which would make it the lightest aircraft ever built. “The carbon fibre that we use is so light that one half-wing only weighs 1.2 kg.”
The team has tested a prototype of the aircraft, which they keep in the aircraft hangar, twice. “We are currently using the data and knowledge of the first test flights for modifications and a little redesign. We hope to test it again somewhere in March or April.” The long term goal for the team is to see if it can make the prototype attractive to other companies. “So we can possibly set up a start-up,” concludes Van den Bergh.

[@hud86]

It's called an easy riser, this design was done back in the 70's by Taras Kiceniuk originally as the Icarus V bi plane glider

[@busterhyman103]

*I built the Easy Riser in the 70's. Flew great with an engine.*

[@nothingtoseehere5760]

And just like that I have a playlist for the night and my faith in public comments has been restored.

[@phil36135]

I had the Icarus it flew great, but you wasnt strapped in. You hung from your arm pits, and you turn by twist grips that' controlled winglets on each wing tip. It was a big scary.

[@looseparts]

Sort of... Taras Kiceniuk Jr. (and his dad) built the Icarus I - a tail less flying wing biplane with 28 foot span and 48 inch chord.. The trailing edge extended 6 inches beyond the rear spar but was too flimsy and kept snapping off, so Tarus redesigned it slightly without the extended trailing edge leaving the wings 42 inches wide. He published a plans book and supported homebuilders via correspondence and phone calls. Larry Murro of Cupertino California produced a kit for easy assembly of the Icarus II and named his company UFM Ultralight Flying Machines. A few years later Tarus designed a single wing flying wing named the Icarus V. A few years after that... Larry and John Moody trimmed 3 feet off each lower wing of an Icarus II and created the Easy Riser. The Cato brothers mounted a chain saw engine and propeller on it and that's the Easy Riser. Larry's daughter Jenny - www.youtube.com/@sunboxstudio - may have more complete info. You're welcome ; -)

[@darrelrobbins]

The easy riser was 55 lbs in hang glider configuration

[@therealgaragegirls]

The overdriven music always ruins these kind of videos.

[@MarioStahl1983]

Be honest, guys! Has it ever worked?

[@rambler6891]

Yep flies great!! Oh wait ...no it didnt🙃

[@SpenceHoshi]

It flopped

[@itsyeboijosh4488]

of course it did not work

[@mrwess1927]

The technology is there but it hasnt been mastered yet.

[@ericoschmitt]

So they never heard of hang gliders.

[@onehumanonearth6226]

Thank you for posting this! It made me realize that I ACTUALLY have the lightest aircraft in the world and didn't even know it! Not sure what to name it though...perhaps, hang...glider? Not sure if that makes sense. It weighs 21kg with zero carbon fiber but the uses the BEST METAL!!! Calling Guinness now!

[@TUDelftTV]

Yeah, so nice what this boys are doing, you can follow them as team AerGo!

[@onehumanonearth6226]

@@TUDelftTV Haha. You're a good sport. I'll definitely keep up with what they're doing. Good luck!

[@AeroFrics]

The structural weight + skin of the glider version is actually 16kg I heard. The 50kg weight comes later, from the 2 electrical engines, a battery and a boat.

[@cindyd4333]

Don't be silly now...each wing half is 1.2kg - far lighter than your metal wings!

[@fnordrabbit1156]

How about aeroglider

[@keithrpenny6484]

A beautifully simple design good job guys, I hope you will be adding diagonal cables to stabilise your lateral shear problems!

Half wing - 1.2kg Times 4 - 4.8kg Where is the rest up to _a bit under 50kg?_

[@manojkumarpandey5256]

1.2kg x 4= 4.8 kg 4.8 kg+ 45 kg pilot weight =49.8 kg 😂😂

[@Wildridefilms]

All the supports and the frame

[@sbjwalks]

The skycraft scout was 49kg back in 1975, first ultralight in the world given a air navigation order to fly,

[@olsonspeed]

Torsional spar flex 2:05. Please review Icarus 1 plans , 25kg hang glider or the Kasperwing ultralight for successful designs. Your current iteration is unsafe to fly and requires extensive structural redesign.

[@therealgaragegirls]

Their design is super sketchy. I wish them luck in improving the design before someone gets hurt.

[@ruxpin76]

A carbon copy (pun intended) off the EasyRiser by John Moody and Larry Mauro... I applaud your efforts, but hope due credit is given. FWIW, you can still find EasyRiser airframes around....it tested to +9G / -6g iirc....what's your rating?

[@mattcolver1]

EasyRiser was a copy of the Icarus II

[@zeke9591]

Looks great, good luck

[@oscar-bc9yk]

Very nice, shame you don't have any flight footage yet! how does the pilot control the rudders at the ends of the wings?

[@videosallnight]

Otto Lilienthal's Derwitzer Hang Glider from 1891 (considered the first successful heavier than air manned aircraft) weighed 39.6 pounds.

[@janholland2224]

"This is where we build most of our aircraft" (0:51) Way to go guys!

[@sirmofrad7332]

friend, i was not impressed by your presentation, the camera man almost forgot the subject, by the way you can't call two wings for aircraft, you can wait your aircraft after complit body, then you Wei.

[@BlueMax333]

There are flexwing trikes with a 14kg / 27hp engine that weighs only 48.75 kg. Even less with a 10.4kg / 16hp Vittorazi Motors Atom 80 engine. CF Construction is labour intensive and expensive so the claim "affordable" is unfounded. Having said that this an excellent project for the students.

[@gregorydahl]

@@SR-gs8zo you wont get 12 hp out of a 3kg engine . 12 hp burns 2 gallons gasoline hour . Or it wouldnt be 12 hp

[@RealLordkiffington]

two test flights? but no video of them, just running on the beach.

[@markifi]

paragliders are under 5 kilos now and they fold into a pack

[@gregorydahl]

Wow . Ali express selling parglider gas engines and frames for 2 thousand or 1 thousand

[@markifi]

@@gregorydahl tucker gott made a video about this

[@BrucePotter]

Only Gen Z could rebuild an existing design using the most expensive method available and then applaud themselves for the effort when it hasn't been proven successful. I particularly like the way it wobbles during the test run. Maybe a few kg of special carbon fibre filament can cross brace the design so that is a thorough copy of the Icarus2 / Easy Riser

[@Internet_Entertainment]

I need your help. Where can I register home built aircraft in USA?

[@1silvervespa]

Look up Easy Riser ..... It was done early 1980's . Great machine.

[@itsyeboijosh4488]

But did it really fly? The video shows no flying.

[@DidacticEditions]

It doesn't take an engineering team to build a scrarealbatross

[@ianrs4685]

um why are you using cantilever, ahem.

[@dalienrivera6093]

The Cliff in the back ground looks nice to test it

[@teaohar2]

My aircraft is less than half that weight. It is a paraglider.

[@jekekefe5923]

What is the update on this project?

[@itsyeboijosh4488]

no update because it is a flop

[@cindybetten7573]

I want to see it FLY!!!

[@BlueMax333]

Did you notice that the 'pilot' was not wearing a harness to support his weight? He was lucky that the 'aircraft' never left the ground. lol

[@captainbotbot2151]

thats the easy riser you are building

[@JesseRayWilliams]

So many different types of wings. And they choose a biplane.

[@wofty33]

Man: "Its actually the lightest aircraft ever built" Me: check again. *pulls out toy plane*

[@pylon500]

Obviously a lot more learning to be done here...

[@jukkatakamaa7274]

Yes pylon500....a whole lotta !

[@nothingtoseehere5760]

The heaviest music ever produced for the lightest aircraft ever produced... and why not subtitles? It's English, but never mind that, the volume is so low they will definitely need subtitles...

[@nothingtoseehere5760]

Technically impressive, tbh

[@vg23air]

well, too bad the FAA says this is a VEHICLE not an AIRCRAFT

[@jorgbonisch6017]

The lightest Aircraft that doesn't fly. .

[@Austincallahan9823]

Build it to a moped

[@user5428]

What is the point of this there are so many hang gliders on the market

[@itsyeboijosh4488]

the point is they earn money from KZbin views

[@justinreich3486]

Thats 3 minutes of my life I'll never get back. What a joke at my company we build carbon wings like that every day. Big hat no cattle.

[@jekekefe5923]

What company?

[@justinreich3486]

We build Kevlar and carbon aircraft body panels and support structures using the same sheets as them however we vacuum cure the sheets and resin and lay the plies at 45degree angles, then 90 then 45 repeat repeat for 1 to 40 layers most of the time 16 layers. Our cure time is normally 3 hours using rhino resin. Non of it is really that complicated and most can learn the process in a week. Its the designs themselves that make you want to eat a shotgun when you look at them. I've seen enough wannabe wright brothers and Howard Hughes to last me a lifetime and they are all looking for naive investors. The planes are almost always copied from someone else or are cobbled together by toddlers with crayons whos parents put them into college telling them they can build anything. Bi-planes are no longer necessary or efficient. Cross beams in wing ribs must ALWAYS flow in 45 degree angles or face the chord of the airfoil at the least.

[@jekekefe5923]

@@justinreich3486 I know what you mean about the wannabes. Lots of videos of failed planes and helicopters. I want to make something like the e swift lite or the rupert composite archaeopteryx. Human powered gliders are my favorite. Something that falls into the ultralight aircraft category so I can fly for fun or cross country recreational activities

[@justinreich3486]

@@jekekefe5923 look into paramotors, they have an extremely short takeoff and landing space and in my opinion is the most fun form of flying. I've taken off from parking lots and backyards even with trees and powerlines 80 feet in front. The human powered gliders are great but very flimsy and nobody wants to fly them more then 10 feet above the ground. They have to be flimsy for right now until we figure something out. A paramotor is definitely the way to go if you have the itch to fly.

[@jekekefe5923]

@@justinreich3486 I probably will choose one for my first ultralight aircraft. The thing so beautiful about gliders is the glide ratio and ability to catch thermals and lift thank you for communicating with me

[@oneskydog4401]

Hi guys, see my avatar? I am flying at 3000 meters on a 28.6 kilo glider. Ez-Riser cable braced space frame covered with 50 g/m Dacron.

[@rafishaikh3598]

VERY DOUBTFUL IF THIS THING GONNA FLY. HUH, Md RAFI MAINE USA-PHD

[@sergeyrink3003]

Hand ass design :)) Рукожопы точнее.

[@itsyeboijosh4488]

This video is comedy

[@clayvilla8302]

😂😂😂😂 weak m9nded TOTALLY FAIL

[@jekekefe5923]

What is the update on this project?

[@itsyeboijosh4488]

no update because this project is a scam