Birdman Chinook

Chinook
ASAP Chinook Plus 2
Role	Ultralight aircraft
National origin	Canada
Manufacturer	Aircraft Sales and Parts
Designer	Vladimir Talanczuk
First flight	12 December 1982
Introduction	1983
Status	Kits in production
Produced	1983-1987 1989-2013 2016-present
Number built	1100 (2011)
Unit cost	C$21,170 (Kit price, 2011)

The Birdman Chinook is a family of single and two-place, pusher configuration, high-wing ultralight aircraft that was first flown on 12 December 1982 and produced by Birdman Enterprises of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada starting in 1983.

The Chinook design has evolved through several models over time and has been produced by two companies. Over 850 in total have been completed and flown and kits remain in production in the 21st century.

The first Chinook model introduced was the single-seat WT-11, which entered the market in 1983. The WT-11 was the eleventh aircraft designed by Ukrainian-born aeronautical engineer Vladimir Talanczuk, a graduate of the Polish Institute for Aviation Specialists. The airfoil was developed by Dr Dave Marsden at the University of Alberta and is designated as the UA 80/1.

The company design goals for the WT-11 were:

Designer Talanczuk stated his own design intentions:

The WT-11 was designed to comply with the then-new US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles category, including the maximum 254 lb (115 kg) empty weight. With the 28 hp (21 kW) Rotax 277 single cylinder, two stroke powerplant the aircraft has a factory standard empty weight of 250 lb (113 kg). The 35 hp (26 kW) Rotax 377 engine became quickly available as an option to give the aircraft more power on floats.

In 1987 the WT-11 was redesignated as the Chinook 1S (1 Seat) by the company to align its nomenclature with the later two-seat Chinook 2S model.

Talanczuk's design is a high-wing, enclosed cabin monoplane with a high aspect ratio wing of 8.75:1, giving a large wingspan of 35 feet (11 m). This gives the WT-11 a very low span-loading as well as a light wing loading. The glide ratio is 10:1 at 35 mph (56 km/h) and minimum sink is 350 fpm (1.78 m/s) at 32 mph (51 km/h). Chinooks have been soared power-off for long duration flights. The low-drag airframe and high aspect ratio wings gave remarkably good performance on the 28 hp (21 kW) Rotax 277 engine and the aircraft can cruise at 50 mph (80 km/h) burning 1.5 US gallons per hour (5.7 litres/h) of automotive fuel, giving a range of 200 miles (320 km) on 5 US gal (19 l) of fuel.