Wide format wings carry Ben Eaton up up and away

The sky’s the limit for Starleaton’s general manager, Ben Eaton, whose plane made of wide-format materials takes flight at this week’s Fly Day in Sydney.

Eaton and his colleagues at Rosemont’s Staging, a theatrical set construction firm in Botany where the plane is being assembled, held a rehearsal last Saturday and showcased the work-to-date. The three ‘pushers’ (including Gary Redman of Roden Print, Sydney) and pilot who will launch the plane made from Gatorfoam, Enviroboard MR and Morane film, on Sunday 7 November at the annual Red Bull ‘Flug Tag’, (Fly Day) in Sydney’s Botanical Gardens, will be dressed as Bavarians and will perform the knee-slapping dance, carefully choreographed with aviation in mind.

“To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever constructed such an aircraft using 3A Composite’s Gatorfoam and other wide-format materials,” he said.

“We researched many designs and believe this one has the best chance of reaching escape velocity which is calculated as 1.6 metres/second We also have a secret weapon in that former Australian 100m sprint champion Matt Shirvington is our trainer.”

When asked if he believed the machine would fly, a modest Eaton replied: “We promise it will at least get airborne come Sunday. I have my pilot's license but this is the first time I've done this."

Pictured: Getting ready for Fly Day, Eaton and the team work on construction of their plane.