Pik-28 aircraft philosophy

This aircraft is made to be simple to build and enjoyable to fly, both now and in the years ahead. It uses existing power plants, and its energy system is designed so that liquid biofuels work with all components.

Carbon-neutral aircraft are possible for a DIY builder. A feasible solution is to use biofuel in a combustion engine. The resulting aircraft is usable if this requirement is taken into account from the start of the design process. Engines are not yet ready for this today, but if you select an engine that can use lead-free petrol, it may be ready for biofuel conversion.

All data, plans and drawings are provided with CERN Open Hardware License. See in more details in License.

Means to archieve the easy built goal are:

One of our main design goals is to make the PIK-28 straightforward to build, even for someone with limited aircraft-building experience. We aim to achieve this through a number of practical design principles:

• Simple wooden construction: Most of the aircraft is made of wood, using straightforward construction techniques. Individual building tasks are kept manageable, without requiring extensive special skills or expensive equipment.
• Readily available components: Wherever practical, we use standard materials, commercially available parts and components that can be purchased rather than manufactured from scratch.
• Designing for the builder: Before finalising each part, we consider different ways to manufacture it, looking for the simplest, most practical solution.
• Modern manufacturing methods: Where appropriate, specialised processes and modern manufacturing techniques can be outsourced to professional subcontractors, saving time and reducing the need for special equipment.
• Step-by-step construction: The aircraft is designed to be built in manageable sections, allowing the builder to make steady progress without needing to assemble the entire aircraft at once.
• A modest workshop is enough: The PIK-28 is designed to be built in a workshop no larger than a standard 40-foot shipping container. Only trial assembly and final assembly require additional space.
• Comfortably within the 51% rule: The design is intended to meet the amateur-built requirements applied in many countries. Our current calculation indicates approximately 74% amateur-builder fabrication and assembly content, leaving considerable flexibility to purchase additional parts or outsource selected tasks while remaining above the 51% threshold.
• You can estimate your own amateur-built work percentage using the supplied HTO-001 spreadsheet.

Our philosophy is simple: building an aircraft should be an enjoyable project, not an endless exercise in solving manufacturing problems.

Fun to fly

This is a little harder to prove, as we don't yet have an aircraft available for test flights. After all, flying it would be the only real way to find out.

However, we have followed several design principles to make the PIK-28 an enjoyable aircraft to fly:

• Experience from the PIK-11 and PIK-27: We have built on what worked well in these aircraft and addressed their known shortcomings.
• Good cruising speed: Fast enough to make visiting distant destinations practical and enjoyable.
• Generous fuel capacity: Enough endurance that you won't have to keep checking the fuel gauge.
• Designed for light and responsive handling, with graceful barrel rolls in mind — more gentlemanly touring aerobatics than competition flying.
• Comfort and economy: A roomy cockpit combined with economical operation.