Those pilots who aren’t old enough to remember the early days of ultralights might not know about one of the most remarkable chapters in aviation history—the ultralight revolution. Everyone knows the Cessna 172 Skyhawk is the most-produced plane in history; high on the list is the Quicksilver Ultralight, with more than 15,000 made over the past 40-plus years. Like the Skyhawk, it is still being produced. The ultralight craze was similar to but of a different origin than the fast-glass craze of the 1980s. While the Rutan canards played off of would-be plane builders’ fascination with technology, ultralights attracted the DIY crowd. These were dirt-simple planes, most of them constructed with lightweight aluminum tubing and covered with sailcloth. These aircraft became so popular, in fact, that the FAA created a rule just for them, Part 103, that limited the size and speed of an ultralight (among other things) but otherwise completely deregulated them. EAA was in on the ground floor with these new planes, and even today, the ultralight strip at Oshkosh remains one of the busiest places at Wittman Regional for the weeklong run of AirVenture.
