AEF Monotrace
The AEF Monotrace is a French ultralight trike, designed and produced by AEF Air Lift System of Houilles. The aircraft is supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.Design and development
The Monotrace was conceived as a soaring trike with retractable main landing gear. It was designed to comply with the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale microlight category, including the category's maximum gross weight of. The aircraft has a maximum gross weight of. It also complies with the requirements of the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules. It features a cable-braced hang glider-style high-wing, weight-shift controls, a single-seat open cockpit, quadracycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration.
The aircraft is made from bolted-together aluminum tubing, with a composite partial cockpit fairing. A full fairing that can be adjusted in flight to provide wing trim is optional. The 50% double surface wing is covered in Dacron sailcloth, is supported by a single tube-type kingpost and uses an "A" frame weight-shift control bar. The powerplant is an air-cooled, two-stroke, Simonini Mini 3 engine, with the Simonini Mini 2+ or the Electravia engines optional. The landing gear consists of four wheels: a fixed nose wheel and fixed main centre-line wheel and two retractable outrigger wheels. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of, giving a useful load of.
A number of different wings can be fitted to the basic carriage, including the standard Ellipse Titan and the optional Ellipse Fuji.
