| EZ King Cobra | |
|---|---|
| Role | Kit plane |
| National origin | Canada |
| Manufacturer | Blue Yonder Aviation |
| Designer | Wayne Winters |
| First flight | 1998 |
| Introduction | 1998 |
| Primary user | Private owners |
| Number built | 1 |
| Developed from | Merlin |
| Variants | EZ Harvard |
The Blue Yonder EZ King Cobra is a Canadian designed and built, single-engined, single-seat aircraft provided as a completed aircraft or in kit form by Blue Yonder Aviation. The aircraft is approximately a 60% scale replica of the Second World War Bell P-63 Kingcobra fighter.[1]
The aircraft can be constructed in Canada as a basic ultra-light, or amateur-built aircraft, but is not currently available as an advanced ultra-light.[2][3]
The EZ King Cobra was designed by Wayne Winters of Indus, Alberta and based on the earlier EZ Merlin. The project was started as a customer request for an ultralight category scale replica of a fighter and was later offered as a commercially available kit aircraft.
Winters created the EZ King Cobra by designing a new cantilever wing based on the Merlin wing, itself based on the Lazair wing design. The fuselage is constructed of welded 4130 steel tube and has a canopy and fin that resembles the original fighter design. The aircraft retained the Junker's ailerons of the original Merlin wing along with the Clark "Y" airfoil and construction featuring a leading edge "D" cell and foam ribs. The prototype is powered by a Rotax 582 two stroke engine of 64 hp (48 kW).[1][4]
The prototype of the new design flew in 1998. In the basic ultralight version gross weight is limited to the category maximum of 1,200 lb (544 kg).[1]
The EZ King Cobra can accommodate a variety of powerplants:[5]
Despite being widely demonstrated no further orders have been received for the type and the prototype remains the sole flying example.[2]
Data from Blue Yonder website[1]
General characteristics
Performance