Not even the Blackwing's inventors accurately predicted the speed mark their creation would hit.
In April last year, Blackwing CEO Niklas Anderberg and his team announced they were trying for a new world speed record for ultralight aircraft. They told the industy their target was 200 KTAS, ambitious given that the extant record at the time was 178 kmh over a 9.3-nm straight sprint. There was plenty of justification for the skeptics.
But when the dust settled after the Blackwing's measured runs, the stopwatches were telling the world the Blackwing had an average speed of 212 KTAS! Armed with a new capability, the Blackwing team backed-up with a new record for a 31-nm closed circuit, logging average of 187 KTAS and eclipsing the old mark by 34 knots.
Recreational aviation had been given new upper limits.
"A few weeks earlier, we started high-speed taxi tests," Anderberg said later. "We noticed immediately that this aircraft is something special. The turbo-charged engine in combination with a single power lever, for the hydraulic MT propeller, accelerated like nothing I have tried before.
"Already on the second test flight, we were reaching 195 kt at 3000 feet. We were very excited and increased the envelope every day. At 5000 feet we were reading 200 kt on the airspeed indicator, at full-power level flight."
Anderberg founded Blackwing Sweden AB in 2011 with the aim of developing a high-speed, carbon-fibre ultralight. The BW 600FG (fixed-gear) first flew in 2015 and the BW 600RG (retractable) two years later, with the last of the trio, the BW 635RG following in 2019.
Today, these three aircraft make up the Blackwing range.
These low-wing, side-by-side aircraft are powered by a selection of Rotax engines from the 100-hp 912ULS to the turbo-charged, 141-hp 915iS.
At the bottom end of the Blackwing range is the BW 600FG. With the wheels fixed and a 912 engine up the front, this machine will still pull 135 KTAS, plodding by the standard of its big brothers but still very respectable compared with its direct competitors. With a BEW of 297 kg including the parachute, the 600 kg MTOW version still offers 303 kg of useful load.
The middle-weight of the range is the 600RG. With a 100-hp 912 fitted and retractable wheels, the 600RG leaps in performance to 150 KTAS in the cruise. Remarkably, the undercarriage equipment adds no weight to the BEW, meaning no loss of useful load against the FG model.
At the top of the ladder is the mammoth BW 635RG. This is the record-setter, with a Rotax 915iS turbo providing the grunt. Despite the recorded top speed, Blackwing is going conservative with a published 185 KTAS and a hair-raising 1600 fpm rate of climb. The capacity takes a hit, with a BEW of 375 taking a chunk out of the useful load for the 600-kg certified model.
Most recreational aircraft and LSAs that are built with speed as the design focus end up sacrificing comfort and space, yet the Blackwings are side-by-side seating in cockpits that are 1200 mm wide. For comparison, Cessna's 172SP has a cabin width of 1000 mm.
Although Blackwing doesn't list an agent for Australia or New Zealand yet, it can only be a matter of time before potential customers here start to realise that this company seems to be able to do a lot more with similar equipment offered by other designs.