Heli-Sport CH-7

CH-7
CH-7 Kompress Charlie
Role	Ultralight kitbuilt helicopter
National origin	Italy
Manufacturer	Heli-Sport, Turin, Italy
Designer	Original CH-6 airframe by Augusto Cicaré, developed by Josi and Claudio Barbero; new cockpit by Marcello Gandini
Number built	c. 335 by May 2009
Unit cost	(2009) €81,033 for Kompress without engine
Developed from	Cicare Helicopters CH-6

The CH-7 Helicopters Heli-Sport CH-7 series of ultralight, kit-built, helicopters is based on a single-seat Argentinian design from the late 1980s. It was later developed into a tandem two-seater, remains in production and has sold in large numbers.

In 1989 EliSport, which became Heli-Sport in 1997, bought the rights to the Cicare CH-6, a small single-seat open cockpit helicopter designed in Argentina by Augusto Cicaré. It was developed by Josi and Claudio Barbero and, with the help of the sports car designer, Marcello Gandini who produced a new, enclosed cabin, marketed from 1992 as the CH-7 Angel. Its commercial success led to a tandem two-seat version with a stretched cabin and bigger engine, named the CH-7 Kompress and, in 2005, a further refinement designated the CH-7 Kompress Charlie.

The piston engine-powered CH-7 ultralight series use the traditional "penny-farthing" layout with two-bladed main and tail rotors. The main rotor is formed from composites and is a teetering, semi-rigid design with 6° of twist. The tail rotor is aluminium. The pod-and-boom fuselage has a fiberglass cabin built on a steel tube frame, with a long transparent forward-opening canopy. The steel frame also carries the engine, semi-exposed behind the accommodation and connected to the main rotor shaft by a belt drive. A slender aluminium boom, strengthened by a pair of long struts to the lower fuselage frame, carries both the tail rotor and swept fins. The upper fin is topped with a short horizontal tailplane, with small endplate fins, and the lower one ends with a tailskid. The CH-7 uses a simple aluminium skid undercarriage, which may be fitted with small wheels for ground handling or multi-tube inflatable floats for flying off water. In this last form the CH-7 is called the Mariner. The Kompress Charlie has faired, wide-chord carbon fibre skid legs.

The Kompress and Kompress Charlie are sold in kit form for home assembly, the manufacturers quoting a 200-hour building time. A fast-build kit, with more components pre-assembled, is claimed to require 85 hours.