Skliar Aqua Glider

__NOTOC__ Infobox Aircraft
name=Aqua Glider


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type=Recreational glider
manufacturer=Homebuilt
designer=Bill Skliar
first flight=1959
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variants with their own articles=The Skliar Aqua Glider or Explorer was a small glider aircraft designed and built in the United States in 1959 and subsequently marketed for homebuilding. Designed by USAF Lt Col Bill Skliar and built by him and a troop of Air Explorers, it was a pontoon-equipped biplane intended to be towed behind a speedboat. Using a tow-rope of between 150 and 400 ft (45 and 120 m), the glider could reach a maximum altitude of 70% the length of the rope when the speedboat reached 35 mph (55 kph). At this point, the rope would be released, and the glider would return to land on the water.

Later modifications replaced the pontoons with landing skids fashioned from automobile leaf springs, and the addition of twin McCulloch MC70 engines driving a common propeller in an unsuccessful attempt to motorise the aircraft. The prototype was later donated to the AirVenture Museum.

pecifications (prototype)

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crew=1 pilot
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length m=4.16
length ft=13
length in=8
span m=4.87
span ft=16
span in=0
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empty weight kg=80
empty weight lb=180
gross weight kg=180
gross weight lb=400
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max speed kmh=105
max speed mph=65
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glide ratio= 6
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References

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* [http://www.airventuremuseum.org/collection/aircraft/Skliar%20Aqua%20Glider.asp#TopOfPage AirVenture Museum website]