Specifications:
Wingspan— 18. 9 feet
Length— 15. 9 feet
Cabin height— 2. 6 feet
Cabin width— 1. 8 feet
Wing area— 51 square feet
Stall speed— 62 mph
VNE—248 mph
Load factors— 4.4g /- 2.2g
Fuel tank capacity— 4. 5 gallons of avgas
Endurance— 50 minutes at max power
CEA-308 at Zona da Mata Airport, Brazil, during sunset.
A standard Jabiru 2200 80-hp engine provides the power.
A top-down view of the CEA-308 shows its clean planform.
as a four-stroke Jabiru 2200 80-hp engine. We accepted the offer, and
the students and I began to divide our time between both projects.
Two years later the restoration process was nearly complete. However,
Capt. Armin had to relocate his family for a new job position, and the
project was suspended until he returned to Brazil in 2009.
In the second semester of 2010, after Mehari’s flight-test
campaign, we returned to this project and began preparing for the
speed records. Aside from many small modifications on the airplane,
we worked hard on the optimization of the engine cooling system
with the objective not to reduce temperature, but to reduce drag.
We applied knowledge acquired through the Küechmann book and
through the Red Bull Air Race, where we had the honor to work with
Team Bonhomme in 2010.
On December 1, 2010, with Capt. Armin at the controls, the first
record attempt was made: the time to climb to 3,000 meters, which
was previously held by Russian pilot Mikhail Markov in an MAI- 89.
Our airplane wasn’t designed for this, but it performed great, setting
a new world record of 8 minutes and 51 seconds, overcoming the
previous record by five minutes. The second record attempt—the
speed record over a straight 15-kilometer course held by American
pilot Brian Dempsey in a Sonerai at 181 mph—took place shortly
after, and once again our airplane did a wonderful job, establishing a
new world record of 205 mph. The final record set that day was the
speed over 100-kilometer course at 202 mph, beating American pilot
Charles Andrews’ previous record of 184 mph in a Monex.
