Light aircraft are hardly at the cutting edge of aviation these days. Fortunately there are still a few places where there are people who are willing to push the boundaries of what’s possible in light aircraft performance. The Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brasil is such place. The students and staff have designed and built a prototype that could become the fastest four cylinder aircraft in the world. They are aiming for 310 kts with an IO-360 powered racer called Anequim.
It’s not the first record breaking aircraft they’ve build. The earlier CAE-308 took the world speed record by flying 223 mph on just 80 hp. Another interesting design is the CAE-309 which is a low cost Advanced aerobatic trainer.
Some more info on the Anequim racer over here:
Link
That is very cool. John Monnet (CEO and owner at Sonex) also had some record for VW engines a long time I think. Now they will start selling a single seater jet, a brother/sister of my Onex. It’s a kit, but will currently only be flown in the exhibition experimental class in the US.
The engine itself is very interesting. It also comes as a turboprop with 180kW of power. This engine should open up lots of possibilities for light aircraft.
The SubSonex is interesting too. Great to see that it’s flying. I think the JSX-2 is the same engine as the TJ-100. That engine is fitted to a BD-5J. Both the SubSonex and the BD-5J would be a lot of fun to fly. They might also make a good airshow act.
P.s. I can’t edit my post anymore but I made a typo in the CEA-308 and CEA-309 names in my first post.
CEA-308
CEA-309
