AMS Carat

Carat A
Role	High performance motorglider
National origin	Germany
Manufacturer	AMS-Flight, Ljubljana
First flight	16 December 1997
Number built	31 by September 2009

The AMS-Flight Carat A is a single-seat, high performance motorglider. The sailplane was originally designed and built by Technoflug in Germany and is now manufactured by AMS-Flight in Slovenia.

The Carat was designed by Technoflug around the wings and horizontal tail of the Schempp-Hirth Discus sailplane, marrying these to a new fuselage, fin, undercarriage and engine.. Structurally the aircraft is a mixture of fibreglass and carbon fibre composites. The wings have PVC foam cores. In plan the wings have parallel chord inner panels and two outer sections of increasing straight taper. Winglets are an option. Schempp-Hirth type airbrakes are mounted on the upper surfaces of the inner panels, with turbulators on the underside to ensure a controlled boundary layer transition from laminar to turbulent flow without separation. The wings have 3° of dihedral.

Though the Discus and the Carat share wings, they position them differently: the Discus is a mid-wing aircraft, the Carat a low-wing one. Like the Discus, the Carat has a high T-tail with separate tailplane and elevators. The tailplane, like the wings, is detachable for easy transport. The cockpit, enclosed in a large clear single piece canopy, is at the trailing edge of the wing, with the main spar under the pilot's knees. The Carat has a conventional electrically-operated inwardly retractable undercarriage. The main wheels have hydraulically operated disc brakes and there is a parking brake. The non-retractable tailwheel is steerable.

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