Rutan Solitaire
American motorglider
title: "Rutan Solitaire" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1980s-united-states-sailplanes", "rutan-aircraft", "vehicles-introduced-in-1982", "aircraft-first-flown-in-1982", "canard-aircraft", "motor-gliders", "mid-wing-aircraft"] description: "American motorglider" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Solitaire" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American motorglider ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox aircraft"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Solitaire |
| image | Rutan 77 Solitaire N142SD.jpg |
| aircraft_type | Kit-built motor glider |
| national_origin | United States |
| manufacturer | Rutan Aircraft Factory |
| designer | Burt Rutan |
| status | Production completed |
| introduction | 1982 |
| first_flight | 1982 |
| :: |
| name = Solitaire | logo = | logo_size = | image = Rutan 77 Solitaire N142SD.jpg | alt = | caption = | long_caption = | other_names = | aircraft_type = Kit-built motor glider | aim = | outcome = | related = | national_origin = United States | manufacturer = Rutan Aircraft Factory | design_group = | designer = Burt Rutan | builder = | issuer = | status = Production completed | owners = | primary_user = | more_users = | service = | major_applications = | proposals = | prototypes = | number_built = | construction_number = | civil_registration = | military_serial = | radio_code = | requirement = | aircraft_carried = | flights = | total_hours = | total_distance = | construction_date = | introduction = 1982 | retired = | first_flight = 1982 | initiated = | in_service = | last_flight = | expected = | developed_from = | variants = | developed_into = | preservation = | fate = | predecessors = | successors = | concluded = The Rutan Model 77 Solitaire is an American, single seat, canard, mid-wing motor glider that was developed by Burt Rutan in response to the 1982 Sailplane Homebuilders Association Design Contest for a homebuilt glider. It first flew in 1982. The Solitaire was declared the winner of the contest and its unusual layout attracted a great deal of attention. For a time in the 1980s the aircraft was available as plans and as a kit.
Design and development
Like many Rutan designs, the Solitaire uses a canard layout, with a lifting foreplane with elevators for pitch control at the nose, and a rudder at the rear of a tail boom. The pilot sits under a bubble canopy and the electro-hydraulically retractable gasoline engine occupies the space between the pilot's feet and the canard. The aircraft is constructed from fiberglass on Nomex honeycomb and urethane foam.
The 41.75 ft wing has a built-in mid-span twist to offset the effects of the canard's downwash, with the inboard 7.4 ft having 2 degrees less twist than the outboard portion of the wing. The wing is equipped with very effective trailing edge spoilers, consisting of a flap that deploys down while also protruding its leading edge upward into the airflow.
The canard configuration is designed so that the forward surface stalls before the main wing, making the aircraft unstallable, and also unspinnable. This does not mean, however, that the aircraft cannot be maneuvered into a flight regime where a high rate of descent is achieved.
When it was in production, the kit included all the hardware to assemble the prefabricated fiberglass parts. The fuselage halves came with Nomex honeycomb cores and a special film adhesive to bond the halves together. The main wing spars supplied used S-glass roving spar caps that had been molded in metal molds. The kits also included many molded parts, including the seat pan, canopy pre-mounted in its frame, turtledeck, fuselage bulkheads, wing root fairings, wheel fairings, wingtips and the foam cores used in the wings and the canard.
The initial engine was the 22 hp Zenoah G-25, but this was changed to a Robin engine and then later the 20 hp Cuyuna 215. The KFM 107e 22 hp engine has also been used.
Operational history
Within two months of the aircraft's introduction in 1982, 50 to 60 sets of plans had been sold. In March 2011 there were seven Solitaires registered in the United States, including one in the EAA AirVenture Museum.
Aircraft on display
Specifications (Solitaire)
|ref=Sailplane Directory, Soaring and EAA |prime units?=imp General characteristics
|genhide=
|crew=one |capacity= |length m= |length ft= |length in= |length note= |span m= |span ft=41 |span in=8 |span note= |height m= |height ft= |height in= |height note= |wing area sqm= |wing area sqft=102.44 |wing area note= |aspect ratio=10.78 |airfoil= Roncz 517 (root), Roncz 515 (tip), Roncz 1052 (canard) |empty weight kg= |empty weight lb=380 |empty weight note= |gross weight kg= |gross weight lb=620 |gross weight note= |fuel capacity=5 US gallons (19 litres) |more general= Powerplant
|eng1 number=1 |eng1 name=Cuyuna 215 |eng1 type= |eng1 kw= |eng1 hp=20
|prop blade number=2 |prop name=fixed pitch |prop dia m= |prop dia ft= |prop dia in= |prop note= Performance
|perfhide=
|max speed kmh= |max speed mph= |max speed kts= |max speed note= |cruise speed kmh= |cruise speed mph= |cruise speed kts= |cruise speed note= |stall speed kmh= |stall speed mph= |stall speed kts= |stall speed note= |never exceed speed kmh= |never exceed speed mph= |never exceed speed kts= |never exceed speed note= |g limits= |roll rate= |glide ratio=32:1 |climb rate ms= |climb rate ftmin= |climb rate note= |time to altitude= |sink rate ms= |sink rate ftmin=150 |sink rate note= |lift to drag= |wing loading kg/m2= |wing loading lb/sqft=6.05 |wing loading note= |more performance= |avionics=
References
References
- "J2mcL Planeurs - Fiche planeur n°".
- Activate Media. (2006). "Solitaire Rutan".
- Said, Bob: ''1983 Sailplane Directory, [[Soaring Magazine]]'', page 126. Soaring Society of America, November 1983. USPS 499-920
- [[Experimental Aircraft Association]]. (2011). "Rutan-Matheny Solitaire – N142SD".
- [[Experimental Aircraft Association]]. (2011). "Rutan-Matheny Solitaire – N142SD Specifications".
- [[Federal Aviation Administration]]. (March 2011). "Make / Model Inquiry Results".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::