OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 2010. The lightest airplane in the world (30 kg) was demonstrated in the pavilion 7 of “Lenexpo” exhibition and congress complex, which hosted the First International Salon of Civil Aviation and Aeronautics “InterAeroCom. St. Petersburg 2010” on August 12-15, 2010.

Aircraft designer and engineer Vadim Knizhnikov is the citizen of St. Petersburg. Together with his friend he was constructing the plane for a year in his one-bedroom apartment from the materials, bought in the construction store. This aero bike is a little more than 3 meters long, its wingspan is 4 meters and height is 1.5 meters. This aircraft can fly a pilot up to 70 kg at a height of 1.5 km. According to the engineer the aircraft handles well enough and can fly at the speed of 160/hr to cover the distance of 200 km.

Vadim Knizhnikov said that he had been working over that idea since his school years, when he was attending the aircraft modelers club. Now he is looking through potential customers’ orders for the development and construction of similar aircrafts.

Exhibition demonstrated one more model, designed by the same author: it is a small unmanned scout-plane, equipped with a camera, which can monitor territories with a birds-eye-view. The aircraft can hardly be distinguished from a bird in its eagle’s disguise.

When observing the exposition Vadim Bazikin, Honored Russian pilot and test-pilot, also paid attention to the demonstrated aero-bike and scout-plane. He wished the inventors success in their future endeavors and complimented them for their exciting hobby.