Fauvel AV.44

AV.44
Role	Sports plane
Manufacturer	Homebuilt
Designer	Charles Fauvel

Last updated August 03, 2019

The Fauvel AV.44 was a design for an unorthodox light aircraft produced in France in the 1970s. The work of Charles Fauvel, it was based on his pre-war AV.10 and like it, was a tailless monoplane with a reverse-delta planform and side-by-side seating in an enclosed cabin. The AV.44 featured considerably more modern aerodynamics and accommodation for two passengers in place of the AV.10's one. Five examples were under construction in 1977.

France, officially the French Republic, is a sovereign state whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.02 million. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Charles Fauvel was a French aircraft designer noted for his flying wing designs, and in particular, his flying wing sailplanes. He became interested in soaring after witnessing a competition at Vauville in 1925, and set out to design a competition glider with minimal drag, settling on the flying wing formula based on the work of Georges Abrial and René Arnoux. One of his designs, the AV.10 was the first flying wing to attain a French Certificate of Navigability. His greatest commercial success was the AV.36 sailplane, first flown in 1951.

The Fauvel AV.10 was a flying wing light aircraft built in France in the mid-1930s.

Specifications (as designed)

Data from Jane's all the world's aircraft, 1975-76^[1]

General characteristics

Length: 5 m (16 ft 5 in)
Wingspan: 10.7 m (35 ft 1 in)
Wing area: 19.8 m² (213 sq ft)
Aspect ratio: 5.8
Empty weight: 340 kg (750 lb)
Gross weight: 604 kg (1,332 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 681 kg (1,501 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Continental O-200 4-cyl. air-cooled horizontally-opposed piston engine, 75 kW (100 hp) (typical)
Propellers: 2-bladed wooden fixed pitch propeller

The Continental C90 and O-200 are a family of air-cooled, horizontally opposed, four-cylinder, direct-drive aircraft engines of 201 in³ displacement, producing between 90 and 100 horsepower.

Performance

Maximum speed: 210 km/h (130 mph; 113 kn) at sea level
Cruise speed: 190 km/h (118 mph; 103 kn) at sea level
Endurance: 5 hours 30 minutes
Rate of climb: 1.3 m/s (260 ft/min)

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References

Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions. p. 381.
Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1977-78. London: Jane's Yearbooks. p. 488.

Notes

↑ Taylor, John W.R., ed. (1975). Jane's all the world's aircraft, 1975-76 (66th annual ed.). New York: Franklin Watts Inc. pp. 67–68. ISBN 978-0531032503.

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[JAWA75-76-1] Taylor, John W.R., ed. (1975). Jane's all the world's aircraft, 1975-76 (66th annual ed.). New York: Franklin Watts Inc. pp. 67–68. ISBN 978-0531032503.