The Silent Club is a single seater sailplane of Italian manufacture. It is of the FAI type DU Class glider. It is sold by Alisport ready-to-fly or kit-built as pure glider or self-launching glider. The self-launching version is fitted with a single-blade propeller belt-driven by a two-stroke engine or optionally by an electric motor.
The electric version was the first production electric-powered commercially available aircraft and appeared in 1997. It is driven by a 13 kW (17 hp) DC electric motor running on 40 kg (88 lb) of batteries that provide 1.4 kWh of energy.[1]
The highly modified version, the Alisport Silent Club-J is a self-launching aerobatic jet motor glider shown on the U.S. airshow circuit and all over the world by Bob Carlton.[2] It is powered by twin AMT-USA AT-450 jet engines (200 N (45 Lbf) of thrust each) originally developed for radio-controlled aircraft.[3]
The fuselage is carbon and glass fiber composite with epoxy resin.
The wingspan is 12 meters without winglets.
The flaperons stretch for 10.0 meters of the full wingspan.
Schempp-Hirth-type spoilers extend on the upper wing surface only.
Fixed or retractable main wheel behind the pilot, with shock absorber and drum brake activated via spoiler control lever aft travel.
The Silent Club has light ailerons, light elevator, along with a generous rudder. The roll rate is quick due to the lively feel of the ailerons.
Stall is predictable and recovery is simple. In level flight as airspeed is reduced when approaching the stall speed the sailplane vibrates a little, at this point decreasing the angle of attack results in airspeed increase and normal flight resumes, from a climbing attitude the sailplane stalls decisively, the nose pitches down gently and recovery is easy with stick forward.
Spin entry is obvious and recovered with rudder and stick.
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