Originally Posted by
Forfoxake
Me too. I think I have a brochure from the time somewhere that advertised the Rotax 508 as an option on the AX-3.
Have not found the brochure but did come across the following article from the Microlight Flying magazine from Nov/Dec 1992 (Whistles in the Wires):
"Bill sees it through
After something like two years- and it must have seemed far longer- Bill Sherlock of Cyclone Airsports has finally got the French-designed AX-3 side-by-side two-seater through Section S. He thus joins Mainair in the elite club of manufacturers who produce both fixed-wing and flexwing aircraft.
Bill has kept a typically low profile while the work has been proceeding, mainly because he preferred to proceed in easy- and affordable- stages.
The finished aircraft is very similar to the machine demonstrated at Popham in March 1991, except that the four-stroke has been replaced by a Rotax 582. It will return eventually, as an option. The price, however, has increased markedly and at £14,808 including VAT is nowhere near the £9000 Bill originally aimed at.
Although regarded as a French design nowadays, the AX-3 is actually a heavily developed version of the Weedhopper designed by American John Chotia in the very early days of microlighting. The American model was significant in that it was the first microlight to boast a purpose-designed engine, rather than the chainsaw/snowmobile/you-name -it units pressed into service by other manufacturers. The Chotia engine, however, was a dreadful power plant which did the aircraft no favours at all, and it was not until the design rights crossed the Atlantic that the aircraft's true potential could be realised."
The reference to the Rotax 582 is strange since my (G-MYHG), and most of the early AX3s in the UK, were powered by the Rotax 503. And that is still the case if you look at G-INFO! I thought the first AX3 that I came across with a 582 was G-MYER (that Hugh Know flew from Shetland to Norway etc.) but note that it is now classed as an AX2000. There is also at least one AX2000 still registered with a HKS but sure that it was the four stroke 508 in the AX3 because the same issue of Microlight Flying lists the other Cyclone Airsports product of the time, the Chaser, with a 508 option (instead of the 377 or 447).