The Piel CP-30 Emeraude (French: émeraude = "emerald") is an aircraft designed in France in the mid-1950s and widely built both by factories and homebuilders.
Design and development
The Emeraude is a low-wing
cantilevermonoplane with fixed
tailwheel undercarriage and side-by-side seating for two. The aircraft uses wood construction with a laminated box spar with an elliptical trailing edge.[1] The prototype was designed and built by
Claude Piel, who then licensed manufacture of the aircraft to a number of firms, most significantly
Coopavia. These early production machines were similar to the prototype, but were fitted with more powerful engines.
The first major revision of the design was the Super Emeraude, designed by Piel while working at
Scintex in the early 1960s. It featured a strengthened airframe and cleaned-up aerodynamics, allowing it to be certified for
aerobatics. Much of Scintex's Super Emeraude production was contracted out to
CAARP, where the design eventually served as the basis for the
CAP-10.
Emeraudes were also produced in the
United Kingdom (by
Fairtravel as the Linnet) and in
South Africa by General Aircraft ("Genair") of Virginia Airport as the Aeriel 2 with imported engines,[2] the first aircraft to be manufactured entirely in that country.[3] The Linnet was modified by the
Garland Aircraft Company, formed by P.A.T Garland and D.E. Bianchi, to meet British
airworthiness requirements. The first aircraft (G-APNS) was built at
White Waltham and first flown on 1 September 1958 by Squadron Leader
Neville Duke. Two more aircraft were planned but only one more was built by Garland-Bianchi in 1962. Between 1963 and 1965 three more aircraft were built with 100-hp
Rolls-Royce Continental O-200-A engines. The last two aircraft had one-piece sliding cockpit canopies.
Operational history
Reviewers Roy Beisswenger and Marino Boric described the design in a 2015 review as "It is not quick to build, as the timber construction is rather complicated because of the complex forms, but in aesthetic terms it is undoubtedly a success."[4]
CP-301A – initial production version with
Continental C90 engine (118 built)
CP-301B – version by
Rousseau with sliding canopy, spatted undercarriage and other refinements (23 built)
CP-301C – version by
Scintex with bubble canopy and revised cowling, wings and tail (84 built)
CP-301S – Smaragd certified factory built version by Binder Aviatik KG /
Schempp Hirth.
Continental C90 engine, sliding canopy, upper part of rear fuselage in fibreglass including a dorsal fin and other refinements (25 built)