Cicaré 8 Kit Helicopter Debuts at AirVenture

It is hard to miss the sexy, sleek, Ferrari-red two-place helicopter on the Ultralight field at AirVenture. It’s new, it’s beautiful, and, as it turns out, it is a kit which can be completed in 200 hours, or even faster at a Cicaré builder assist facility. The two-place Cicaré 8 helicopter is appearing at AirVenture for the first time, made possible by Keith Barr, the President and CEO of the newly formed Cicaré USA corporation.

If the Cicaré name rings a bell, it is because of Augusto Cicaré, who moved from Italy to Argentina at age 19 to start and build what is now the storied Cicaré Helicopter Company. Cicaré has been designing and building helicopters for the Argentinian civilian and military since the early 1960s. Although Augusto died in January of 2022, his sons have continued the business, with great success.

The two place side by side Cicaré 8 was designed in Argentina in 2015. About 20 ships are flying in Europe and South America. Last year, helicopter pilot and entrepreneur Keith Barr teamed up with Cicaré Argentina to form Cicaré USA. The USA home office is located at Flying Eagle Airport north of Reno, near Stead airfield, the storied former home of Reno Air Racing. Keith brought N81UH to Airventure and it has been a hit since the skids touched grass on the Ultralight field.

The Cicaré 8 is built for performance, its two bladed main rotors spin at 570 RPM and the tail rotors buzz in at an amazing 2010 RPM. With a Rotax 915 IS engine, the Cicaré can cruise at 80 knots and hover out of ground effect at more than 6,000 feet. The ship’s service ceiling is listed at 10,000 feet. The busy Rotax sips fuel (auto gas) at about 4.5 gallons per hour and its 18 gallon tanks will give you a range of nearly 300 nautical miles (with a little reserve).

The big story about the Cicaré 8 is its design and build quality. This does not look like a kit built helicopter, unless you limit your universe to grand champion builds. The fuselage skins and all of the blades are made from carbon fiber. The main rotor control rods come up from the swash plate through the hollow rotor mast, resulting in reduced drag (this design was originally patented by Augusto Cicaré years ago). The tail rotor transmission is an elegantly designed work of art.

In the cockpit, the pilot (who solos from the right seat) is treated to a correlated throttle. Once 70% power is pulled on the collective a switch (on the end of the collective) is pushed and the throttle governor takes over through all regimes of hover and flight. The Kanardia Pilot’s Flight Display and moving map are complemented by a separate engine information system. The big four helicopter gauges (Vertical Speed, Altitude, Airspeed and Rotor/Tach RPM) are electronically depicted at the top of the panel as traditional and familiar large round instruments.

In the “you’ve never seen this before” department, Cicaré has four video cameras positioned around the fuselage that give the pilot unprecedented situational awareness close to the ground. For the first time, a helicopter pilot will be able to hover and have a video view of his tail rotor right there on his Pilot’s Flight Display. This innovative design should help reduce the number one cause of hovering accidents, tail rotor strikes.

How does the Cicaré 8 handle? Keith Barr, who has about 60 hours in the aircraft, says it has light controls, about half way between a Robinson R-22 and a Schweitzer 300. How much does a Cicaré 8 cost? A complete kit, with engine, interior, panel, as shown and one com radio will go out the door for $220,000. Once MOSAIC rules are implemented, Barr intends to build ready to fly ships, but at this price and with such a low build time, the kit-built route seems very tempting.

For more information, see www.Cicare-USA.com