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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.