Ultralight of the Month, The Murphy Renegade

November 15, 2008 · Filed Under Our Blog 

The Murphy Renegade

If your preference is for the classic or antique look, but you’d also like some modern performance numbers, the Renegade is ideal. If you think you would enjoy following rivers in an open cockpit airplane and throwing yourself through an occasional loop or roll, the Renegade should be perfect. If you want a rugged biplane that goes together quickly, costs less than any other aerobatic biplane kit out there, and that has proven itself in the hands of hundreds of other builders, the Renegade is perfect. With a simple and conventional control system, a beefy aluminum fuselage and wing structure, a strong landing gear, and a leisurely 75-85 mph cruise, the Renegade line is the perfect compromise of fun, thrift, thrills, and safety.

Renegade Airframe

The structure of the Renegade is a blend of old and new technology, it is a conventional strut and wire braced biplane of fabric covered all metal construction. Under the Poly-Fiber fabric you will find an aluminum truss fuselage that utilizes 6061-T6 aluminum tubing mated with a unique, custom designed extrusion. All fuselage members are blind-riveted with AVEX and stainless steel rivets. The larger diameter tubes provide a fuselage with very high strength and rigidity while maintaining light weight. A fuselage of equivalent strength and rigidity, but welded from 4130 steel would weigh more than twice as much. Because the structure is a blind riveted one, rather than welded, it is very easy for even an inexperienced person to check for structural integrity and make any necessary repairs. The use of square tubing wherever possible provides maximum contact between riveted parts as well as increasing bending strength.

The tail assembly is wire braced for the strongest possible structure with minimum weight. Doublers and crush tubes are used at all wire attach points. The doublers are used to increase bearing surface while the crush tubes allow the correct tightening of bolts without over stressing the tube structure. The tail group is made of aluminum tubes and channels that have an exceptionally high strength to weight ratio. Assembly is a simple matter of laying out the materials over full scale drawings that are provided for all the flying surfaces.

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