Quicksilver Aircraft is an American manufacturer of ultralight and light aircraft. Founded in 1972 as Eipper Formance and later Eipper Aircraft,[1] the company today claims to be the leading manufacturer of ultralight aircraft in the United States,[2] with the Quicksilver type ultralight being used to train more ultralight pilots than any other type.[3]
The company was previously known as Quicksilver Manufacturing Inc.[4]
In 2015 the owners dissolved Quicksilver Aeronautics and closed the Temecula factory after a prolonged downturn in sales, while retaining the intellectual property and arranging for parts and support to be supplied through long-time distributors such as Air-Tech Inc.[5][6]
History
Quicksilver was founded in Eipper Formance, a hang glider manufacturer established by Dick Eipper in Southern California in the early 1970s.[7][8] Eipper Formance produced both flexible-wing and rigid-wing hang gliders, including Bob Lovejoy's Quicksilver rigid-wing design, which used a rectangular wing and conventional tail surfaces rather than a delta wing.[7][8]
In the late 1970s the company began experimenting with adding engines and landing gear to the Quicksilver glider, creating the Quicksilver C as a self-launching powered glider aimed at pilots flying from flat terrain.[7][8] Subsequent versions introduced tricycle landing gear and progressively more conventional aerodynamic controls, leading to the Quicksilver E and then the MX series, which replaced pure weight-shift control with two- and three-axis control surfaces.[7][8]
Eipper Formance was renamed Eipper Aircraft and later Quicksilver Aircraft. Under later ownership the firm traded as Quicksilver Manufacturing Inc., headquartered in Temecula, California, and offered a seven-model line-up that included Sprint and Sport trainers and the more enclosed GT series.[7][4][8]
Quicksilver's GT400 and GT500 models, introduced in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, were designed as higher-performance aircraft with podded or enclosed cockpits. The GT500 became the first aircraft to be certificated by the Federal Aviation Administration in the Primary Category for sportplanes in 1993.[4][8]
In the 2010s the company developed the Sport 2SE, a fully built, two-seat Special Light-Sport Aircraft (S-LSA) derived from the open-cockpit Sport 2S. The Sport 2SE received S-LSA approval in 2014 and has been marketed as a trainer and rental aircraft.[9][10]
In October 2015 Quicksilver announced a major reorganisation and closed its Temecula factory after a difficult financial year, with management citing falling sales and the need to liquidate assets.[11]
Later that month the owners opted to dissolve Quicksilver Aeronautics, the then-current corporate entity, while retaining the intellectual property and arranging for long-time dealer Air-Tech Inc. of Reserve, Louisiana, and other suppliers to provide parts and potential future kits.[5][6]
An official statement issued on behalf of Flying Spirit Aircraft, the rights-holding company, indicated that factory support for existing aircraft and replacement parts would continue through third-party companies and that new kits might be offered depending on demand.[6]
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