Rapture Aircraft Inc.

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Adelaide, SA
Rapture Aircraft Inc.

Rapture Aircraft develops, manufactures and sells a range of high performance kit aircraft for recreational aviation enthusiasts.
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08/11/2025

The top skin to bottom skin joins have now been taped, all along each leading edge and wingtip. The top skin, bottom skin, rear spar tape has been applied to connect the aft skins to each other. All structural work has now been completed on the wings. They will be relocated to our workshop in Canada to be installed on our new build fuselage that will be fabricated there, commencing shortly.
The previous new all carbon fuselage that we built up several years ago will be used to develop the FWF installation and the new retractable nosegear system that will be integrated into the engine mount for the 142hp supercharged engine that will go into the aircraft. It will also be used to develop the instrument panel and cockpit layout.

27/10/2025

The left wing has now been closed out as well. We will need to pressure check the fuel tank aft of the spar. There will then be tapes to be installed along the seams as well as some other minor tasks.
Enjoy the photos.

26/10/2025

The right wing has now been closed out and leak checks have been carried out on both the leading edge fuel tanks and aft of spar fuel tanks. Tapes are still required for the leading edge and wingtip seams to complete the skin installation.

11/10/2025

The aileron idlers, bellcranks and pushrods have all been installed, with castle nuts and cotter pins being used on all pushrod attach bolts.
All geometries have been checked to ensure correct and symmetrical activation of the ailerons. The geometry is such that the ailerons are differential to minimize or remove adverse yaw.
The access panels for the aileron idlers also provide access to the outer wing attach bolts.
We are inching closer to closing out the wings.

10/10/2025

Today, the flap brackets were secured in place, after the trial fit of the whole flaps a few days ago determined their correct location.
Access panels adjacent to the outboard flap brackets are being fabricated to facilitate access to the aileron bellcranks that are attached to its associated rib. Filler will be used around the flap brackets before painting to fill the indentation that the flap bracket sits in.

03/10/2025

The flaps and ailerons have been trial fitted to the wings to determine the final location of the aileron piano hinge and lower skin flap bracket mounting points. All the skins and trailing edges need to be aligned which they now are.
The flaps and ailerons are not new build in order to save time and cost to get the new build aircraft flying. These items have been salvaged off original Lightning Bug N63974 which we purchased as both a donor aircraft for items that can be reused and for our technicians to see how systems were installed on the original aircraft.
We are making excellent progress in converting the original paper drawings into a CAD model, where we are incorporating the improvements that we are making into the Rapture Bug design. We are looking into a composite landing gear with carbon wheels that will save almost 15 lbs over the original aluminium gear.
With all our enhancements that we are incorporating into our Rapture Bug, including the lighter weight but stronger structural components and the supercharged engine with 40% more power than the original engine, we are very excited about the performance and flying qualities that our Bug will offer.

30/09/2025

The aft of spar fuel tanks have received their first coating of Novolac (fuel sealant) with the final coat to go on tomorrow. The tanks themselves will then be ready for the wing closeout. Just a few tasks left such as installation of the flight control components (bellcranks, idlers, mounting brackets, pushrods etc.), installation of the conduit for electrical wiring etc. to go and we should see the final top skin go on to close out the wing.

25/09/2025

Both leading edges have now been closed out. The upper skins on both wings, forward of the spar have been bonded in place. A camera inserted into the fuel tanks show a good amount of resin squeezed out of the joins so we are very happy with the outcome.
The two photos of the wing without weights show the underside of the right wing which was closed out a couple of days ago. The left wing was only closed out yesterday but we should have photos of both wings, with the 2 ply tapes along the leading edge join to complete the leading edge available to see in the next couple of days.

19/09/2025

The inspection/access panels located at the outboard end of the lower skin to offer access to the fuel tank full electronic sensor has been fabricated and installed.
Also, the false ribs in the aileron pushrods cavity to connect the main spar to the forward face of the fuel tank have been fabricated and installed. Cutouts for the aileron pushrods can be seen in the attached photos.
There are photos of the 1.5” diameter fitting for a fuel line that connects the wing tank to the fuselage tank. It needs to be sufficient diameter to allow fuel to feed from the fuselage tank to the wing tanks at a high rate during refuel (about 15 gallons per minute) to prevent fuel filling up and overflowing from the filling point since we have a single point refuelling system that fills both the fuselage tank and all wing tanks. The gray tank sealant is very evident in these photos.
We pretty well have everything installed into the leading edge so closing out of the leading edge is imminent. We are excited to be reaching that point.
Finally, the CAD model of the new fuselage structure is almost completed. This will allow the design of the new firewall forward incorporating our supercharged engine and retractable nosegear. We have our new build yellow fuselage that we will use as a mockup to build the FWF, to develop the installation for the instrument panel and to assess the ergonomics of the cockpit

13/09/2025

Yesterday, the fuel tank sealant was applied to the fuel tanks. This involved masking the top skins where the rib cap strips are located so that the carbon skin is bonding to the carbon cap strips without any sealant interfering. Then the sealant was applied. This was one of the major tasks to be undertaken before closing out the leading edge.
The flight control runs will be installed aft of the spar, along with some conduit to protect electrical wiring and pitot tubing etc. that will run from the outboard end of the wing to the inboard. After the installation of those items and various mounts for flap hinges etc., the wing will be close to being ready for the full closeout. Hopefully late next week.

10/09/2025

The ribs aft of the spar have now been floxed into place. They will then receive some cloth to complete the bonding process.
We took some photos of the entire wing with the aft skin resting in place. We expect this skin to be bonded in next week, after we complete the installation of the control and fuel system hardware. So closing out the wing next week will be a very exciting milestone for us. We are super happy about how our new wing is turning out. Kudos to our composites guy who has done an outstanding job on this wing. It looks so good as it is that we don’t want to paint it, but we will.

08/09/2025

Over the weekend, the cap strips for the ribs that are installed aft of the spar were fabricated as shown in the series of photos below. The aft ribs will be installed next. We are getting close to installing the aileron and flap hardware. The flaps and ailerons themselves are ready to be installed and will start appearing in photos shortly.
We are now gathering the material to fabricate the new fuselage that is planned to go together in our partners facility in London, ON. The previous fuselage that we built and that was displayed at Oshkosh (see the attached photos) will be used to develop the firewall forward installation including the retractable nosegear, the interior fitout, and the panel for the new build. We can then transpose the FWF, interior and panel into the new airframe once the new airframe is ready to accept them. We would like to be flying the new one into Sun N Fun next year but that might be ambitious. Oshkosh is a must attend though so we need to keep cracking on.
We are also about to start preparing the powerplant for the aircraft. The base engine is ready and waiting at our London ON facility and our forced induction kit is about to be shipped. When combined, we will have a 142hp (around 130hp max. continuous) engine. We think you are going to like our powerplant solution for the Bug.

Address

Adelaide, SA

Website

http://www.raptureaviation.com/

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