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ENTRY
Ikenga Team
Ikenga 530Z Ikenga Cygnus 21 Ikenga Cygnus 21 T Ikenga Cygnus 21TX Ikenga Cygnus 21P2 Ikenga E.Z. Bird Return icon Ikenga 530Z Ikenga Cygnus 21 Ikenga Cygnus 21 T Ikenga Cygnus 21TX Ikenga Cygnus 21P2 Ikenga E.Z. Bird Return icon
 

Ikenga, Cygnus 21  1989

Prototype Piloted by Mark Hallett

Following the 1988 airshow season attention was given to building a ship tailored to kit manufacturing.

The Cygnus 21 aircraft in flight over Las Vegas, NM. is shown below.
 

Acknowledgment: Vance Vanderhoff . . .

. . . You enabled the years of development work in Albuquerque to continue as we both strived to make our dreams real: you with cogeneration technology for Japanese clients and I with the vision of autogyro kits for utility applications in Third World cultures.

The Cygnus 21 began a series of Ikenga kits that were engineered as simple bolt together aircraft utilizing 6061T6 aluminium square tubing for the twin masts and keel. A priority was to keep manufacturing costs to a minimum with quality materials and to forego the need for welding by the end user. An assortment of composite fairings, fifteen-gallon seat tanks, and Tedlar flying surfaces were experimented with. A number of propeller configurations were tried as well as McCutchen and Rotordyne rotors. During the pre-production phase the project was relocated to the Coronado Airport in Albuquerque, and Ultralight aircraft manufacturer, Ruben Baca, became instrumental in the production plans.

The objective was to deliver to the end user a kit that could be assembled in forty hours using the most basic tools, as the targeted market was the utility sector of Third World countries; recreation and sports flying followed as a target market. Our aircraft had to operate in and out of football fields—most third world villages had one—and be maintained by the owner/pilot or a local/qualified two-stroke mechanic. Much of the immediate interest from Africa, Asia, India and South America was for Ikenga to be outfitted with a Micro Ag crop spraying system, or equipment for border patrol and surveillance and flying doctors. Plans and negotiations included an African assembly base located in Windhoek, Namibia.

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