Kolb Flyer, twin engine, part 103 legal ultralight aircraft, by Homer Kolb

Ultralight Aircraft Magazine - The first ultralight marketed by Kolb, the Kolb Flyer, was actually designed and built in the late 1960’s and flown in 1970. This was at least five years before John Moody made his first powered flights in his Easy Riser hang glider.

The Kolb Flyer, after gathering dust for several years, was cleaned up and marketed as a kit in 1980 as Kolb’s first ultralight. 

It was one of the first ultralights that was actually a lightened and scaled down airplane, which happened to fit the FAA definition of an ultralight -- rather than starting with a hang glider and adding an engine. 

The Kolb Flyer was a 3-axis control, twin engine ultralight; it was powered first with 2 Chrysler West Bend engines, then later with 2 Solo engines.

Kolb Flyer Specifications:

Wingspan: 29 ft 0 in (8.84 m)
Wing area: 160 sq ft (15 m2)
Empty weight: 185 lb (84 kg)
Gross weight: 392 lb (178 kg)
Fuel capacity: 1.7 US gallons (6.5 litres)
Powerplant: 2 × Solo 209 single cylinder, two-stroke engine, 11.5 hp (8.6 kW) each

Kolb Flyer Performance

Cruise speed: 40 mph (64 km/h, 35 kn)
Stall speed: 20 mph (32 km/h, 17 kn)
Range: 35 mi (56 km, 30 nmi)
Service ceiling: 6,850 ft (2,090 m)
g limits: +4/-2.5
Maximum glide ratio: 10.8:1 at 27 mph
Rate of climb: 250 ft/min (1.3 m/s)

Kolb, now an award-winning builder of ultralight airplanes, electrified the new world of ultralight flying in 1980 when he exhibited his delicate "Kolb Flyer."  

He went on to found a successful company that offered inexpensive kits for flight-lovers such as himself.  Kolb said a kind neighbor paid a pilot to give him his first flight when he was 14, a flight over the fields of Chester County.  "The pilot let me fly a bit," said Kolb.  "He took me over my Dad's farm ... I'll never forget that."

Kolb was so taken with flying that he spent his pocket money on expensive flying lessons at nearby Pottstown-Limerick airport -- $2.50 for 15 minutes in the air.  As was the custom among Mennonite youth of his day, Kolb had dropped out of high school to help his father on the farm.  He got his pilot's license at 17.   Kolb's religious faith and conservative traditions were never an impediment to his flying, he said.  "There were never any contradictions; I never had to battle anything on that score," Kolb said.

His family lived on what they could eke from their 100-acre farm and were barely able to fund his flying lessons, never mind buy him a plane.  Kolb set out to build his own.  "I came up with the idea that probably an airplane could be built that weighed less than a pilot," he said.  "If that was possible, then a farm kid could build it."  He assembled several gliders and light planes in the late 1940s and 1950s -- the first, with wings made of white pine, was towed behind a speedboat before it took flight.

In the late 1960s, he constructed a 138-pound plane lighter than himself, a true aeronautic innovation, he said.  The plane resembled a fire-fly, its delicate wingspan extending over a long tail that touched the ground during take-off and landing.  It was powered by four chain-saw engines, and the one small black seat dangled completely exposed to the elements with only a thin belt to restrain the pilot.   "It was a good little airplane," he said.  "I flew it a lot."  The plane and its descendants brought Kolb so much aviator's attention that he launched his own business -- Kolb Aircraft -- and housed it in a bark-like hangar on his 100-acre Phoenixville farm.  More than 1,500 ultralight plane kits were assembled by the company and sold for $5,000 to $8,000 throughout the United States and about 25 countries abroad.  "You really don't know what flying is like until you fly in one of these low-altitude jobs," he said.

Story Courtesy of

By F. Brinley Bruton
INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF