this is the ensa en-1 "the crop top"

history

The ensa en-1 was small GA (general aviation) aircraft made for recreational flight and eventually it's own racing league in Germany, during the early parts of the 21st century. The en-1 is the first in a line of 5 GA aircraft made by ensa, but remains the smallest and most popular among the flight community. The first model was very affordable, with the lowest cost at $5,000 ( in peices, ready for assembly, engine sold separately) and up to $20,000 fully built with everything except the battery. Early in its production run the media nicknamed it "the crop top" or "hot rod top", though the crop top stuck. With the new publicity its sales soared, with 4,000 per built orders, and 11,000 assembly required orders. With the mass amount of assembly required versions ( called the en-1a for assembly) a racing league was created in Germany, created by franz Kramer, that used his custom built engine for point to point races. The league was sadly shut down, after 6 fatal crashes during 2 races. The enca en-1 was not perfect, and many who flew it complained about the low visibility out the front with the short ceiling and the long nose infront of it, and poorly designed landing gear. Ensa discontinued the en-1 because of these complaints after its first year, with a total of 15,000 total being produced. Over the next 10 years it would lose 1,000 in small crashes, and 23 in fatal crashes, the cause for all of these were poor visibly. Its strengths were, however, what made this such a popular aircraft. With a top speed of 212mph stock, and with simple aftermarket parts bringing it up to 250mph and up, and with it's short takeoff speed and landing speed. Its maneuverability was very good and made this a very fun aircraft for those who flew it. This version was used in the german ensa league, and was heavily modified and painted (some say to much striping)
( hope you read all that)

controls

Normal flight controls
Ag1 for navigation lights

fetures

Lots of striping ( I may have go overboard)
An artifical horizon
Two speed gauges but you can pretend the other other is an altitude indicator
Working stick

gallery

BUILDERS NOTE: this is quite fun to fly. I suggest waiting til 130mph before you pull up, and it will need quite a bit of trim at first but soon you wont need that much. It can takeoff from USS tiny, you just need to have it where it is almost hanging off the back of the ship to have enough room to takeoff, and once you've left the deck pull up hard and dont stop, you get like 10 feet from the water before you finnaly get far enough of the ground. Its suspension when landing isn't the best but it still works. The braking for the gear is a bit powerful but it's fine.

thanks to those who upvote, comment, and follow

papakernels 11/21/2020