title: Chayair Sycamore
text: # Chayair Sycamore
  
  The Chayair Sycamore is a South African autogyro, designed and produced by Chayair of Musina. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction or as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.
  
  ## Design and development
  
  The Sycamore features a single main rotor, a two-seats-in-tandem open or optionally enclosed cockpit, tricycle landing gear with wheel pants and a four-cylinder, liquid and air-cooled, four-stroke, dual-ignition turbocharged 115 hp (86 kW) Rotax 914F engine in pusher configuration. The 160 hp (119 kW) Subaru EJ22 is optional.
  
  The aircraft fuselage is made from bolted-together aluminum tubing and mounts a 9.10 m (29.9 ft) diameter Advanced Kinetics rotor. The tailplane features five vertical tail surfaces for improved directional stability. The enclosed Sycamore Mk 1 version has an empty weight of 380 kg (840 lb) and a gross weight of 590 kg (1,300 lb), giving a useful load of 210 kg (460 lb).
  
  ## Operational history
  
  By December 2012 one example had been registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration in the Experimental - Amateur-built category.
  
  ## Variants
  
  ### Sycamore Mk 1
  
      Enclosed cockpit version
  
  ### Sycamore Mk 2000
  
      Open cockpit version
  
  ## Specifications (Sycamore Mk 1)
  
  Data from Bayerl
  
  General characteristics
  
  * Crew: one
  * Capacity: one passenger
  * Length: 5.40 m (17 ft 9 in)
  * Width: 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in)
  * Height: 2.80 m (9 ft 2 in)
  * Empty weight: 380 kg (838 lb)
  * Gross weight: 590 kg (1,301 lb)
  * Fuel capacity: 55 litres (12 imp gal; 15 US gal)
  * Powerplant: 1 × Rotax 914F four cylinder, liquid and air-cooled, four stroke, turbocharged aircraft engine, 86 kW (115 hp)
  * Main rotor diameter: 9.10 m (29 ft 10 in)
  * Propellers: 3-bladed Warp Drive Inc carbon fibre
  
  Performance
  
  * Maximum speed: 153 km/h (95 mph, 83 kn)
  * Cruise speed: 128 km/h (80 mph, 69 kn)
  * Endurance: 2.5 hours
  * g limits: +3.5/-0.5
  * Rate of climb: 4 m/s (790 ft/min)
  