The prototype GlaStar was designed and built by a group of six engineers, including Tom Hamilton, Ted and Tom Setzer, and Bud Nelson, with Ted Setzer doing most of the hands-on construction. The aircraft was built by a company called Arlington Aircraft Development. The setup of the time was that AAD did all the construction/design and Stoddard-Hamilton did all the sales and production. I guess there was a legal reason to do this since basically the same persons was involved in both companies.

Interesting enough a mixed construction was choosen, not a pure composite one as most people expected from the company that pioneered mold composite aircrafts with the Glasair. A welded steel-tube cage cabin was determined to be the most efficient configuration that was also the easiest to build, not to mention that being a bush plane the safety was greatly improved. The engine, seats, tail cone, wings, control sticks, rudder pedals, landing gear, etc. all bolted directly to the steel tube roll cage. The pre-formed composite outer shell allowed for the sweeping compound curves that gave the GlaStar its distinctive profile. The wings and tail surfaces did not have any compound curves and were made out of aluminum, this is also a better material for safety since the wings with the fueltanks will “fall off” in case an aircraft goes down in a wooded area.

The Glastar was originally powered by a 125 hp Continental IO-240 engine, But the prototype switched to a 160 hp Lycoming O-320 engine after two years of service and that has also been the engine most builders used at the end.

Even before the first flight took place in November 1994, 100 builders had placed orders for the kit. Complete kits were being shipped out by the fall of 1995, with the first customer built GlaStar flying after only three months. But normally the kit is a real “slow build” with a rather long build process. The hours quoted from the factory was 700-1500 but many builders pass 4000 hours before completion. But by early 90:ties standards this was actually pretty good, evolution has just forced kit manyfacturers into producing kits with much lower completion times today. Just look at the highly popular “18 days to taxi” program marketed for the sportsman.

Personally I love the Glastar in the air. FIrst time I flew it in taildragger configuration I had less then hundred hour total with only a few hours of instruction on a citabria when I got my tail wheel rating and I still felt right at home. It is easy to fly without being boring but it has benign stall characteristics (unless the CG is really far aft it does not really stall, as a pilot you just notice that the VSI shows more then 500ft/min decent!) and good slow speed handling (even at low speeds you can safely “throw it around” as much as you like). I consider it as the #1 candidate for the low-time pilot. And as a bonus it does all this and still is capable of cruise speeds higher then most production aircrafts.

The builder had the option of a tri-gear version, a taildragger, or a floatplane, or all three. Fittings for each of the gear configurations were built into all kits and if the builder wanted to, he/she could switch from one to another at will in under an hour of work. The GlaStar also had folding wings to permit towing on the road and off airport storage. The latter feature really saved my health, I was able to tow the Glastar to my garage in the winter so that I could do all service in my heated garage instead of in the freezing hangar.

Even if most Glastars has been constructed using Lycoming 320 or 360 quite a few (including mine) is using subaru conversions. I know at least three using the old easter block gipsy major clone “LOM”. It gives a very distinct cowling:

Specs:

Fuselage Length
Lycoming engine (rigged for flight) 22 ft., 4 in.
Lycoming engine (wings folded) 25 ft.
Wing Span
Rigged for flight 35 ft.
Wings folded & tail removed 8.0 ft.
Wing loading (at max. gross) 15.3 lbs. per sq. ft.
Structural limit loads (at max. gross) +3.8 / -1.5 Gs
Maximum Height
Tricycle (on gear) 9 ft., 1 in.
Tricycle (wings folded) 6 ft., 4 in.
Taildragger 6 ft., 11 in.
Cabin Dimensions
Width (at hips) 44 in.
Width (at shoulders) 46 in.
Door width 37 in.
Door height 31.5 in.
Baggage space 32 cu. ft.
Weights
Maximum gross weight (on wheels) 1,960 lbs.
Maximum gross weight (on floats) 2,100 lbs.
Empty weight (typical)* 1,200 lbs.
Useful load (typical)* 760 lbs.
Full-fuel payload (standard tanks) 594 lbs.
Full-fuel payload (with auxiliary tanks) 489 lbs.
Maximum baggage capacity 250 lbs.
Fuel Capacity (usable)**
Standard tanks 27.6 gals.
With auxiliary tanks 45.1 gals.

Performance (IO240 fixed/O320 CSP/O360 CSP)
Top Speed (TAS at sea level) 136 kts /145 kts /149 kts.
Cruise Speed (TAS)
75% power at 8,000 ft. 131 kts /140 kts /145 kts.
65% power at 8,000 ft 122 kts /133 kts /138 kts.
Stall Speed (at max. gross)
No flaps (Vs) 49 kts.
Full flaps (Vso) 43 kts.
Rate of Climb
Solo 1,300 f.p.m. / 2,075 f.p.m. / 2,150 f.p.m.
Max. gross 1,000 f.p.m. / 1,390 f.p.m. / 1,500 f.p.m.
Range (at 65% power)
Range Standard Fuel VFR Reserve n.m. 520 481 379
Range Extended Fuel VFR Reserve n.m. 888 829 663