I do something I've not done previously and perhaps should have, which is to weigh the raw materials by way of a forecast, and this baby tips the scales (once the balance settled down) at 106 pounds, or around 48 kilos. This is heavier than I hoped, but at the same time I have elected for an 18-inch square flight compartment as against a 16-inch. Effectively too, this is what the airline industry call an APS weight, or 'Aircraft Prepared for Service' in so far as it has about everything you need except the flight control box, including the landing skids.
This is just two-thirds of my own weight, and I figure if I used carbon-fibre then this could be reduced to half. As it is the airframe weighs around the same as a powered paraglider (albeit not the very newest and very lightest), which makes it as light and compact as could be hoped for once assembled to the latest design. Whether there'll be sufficient thrust ~ and beyond that control ~ to levitate me remains to be seen.
For there's a long way 'twixt here and there.
