Stoddard-Hamilton Glasair Iii

Single Piston

The Stoddard-Hamilton Glasair III is a high-performance amateur-built aircraft that emerged in the late 1980s as one of the fastest kitplanes ever certified for homebuilding. Constructed primarily from composite materials using a wet-layup fiberglass technique, the Glasair III was designed for builders seeking near-certified-aircraft performance with the flexibility and cost savings of the experimental category. With a sleek low-wing design and retractable tricycle gear, it typically mounts a 300-horsepower Lycoming IO-540 engine, enabling cruise speeds around 250 knots—remarkable for a single-engine piston aircraft and competitive with many light twins of its era. What distinguishes the Glasair III from other kitplanes is its never-exceed speed of 280 knots, placing it among the fastest piston singles in general aviation and well above typical certified singles like the Bonanza or Cirrus. The aircraft's composite construction keeps empty weight around 1,400 pounds despite its robust structure, allowing a useful load exceeding 1,200 pounds in most configurations. This combination of speed, efficiency, and load-carrying capability made it popular with builders willing to invest 1,500–2,000 hours of construction time for an aircraft that could outpace most factory-built singles. The Glasair line—including the earlier two-seat models and the larger four-seat Glasair III—became iconic in the homebuilt community during the 1980s and 1990s, with hundreds completed worldwide. Stoddard-Hamilton later evolved into Glasair Aviation, and the design rights have changed hands several times, but the Glasair III remains a benchmark for kitplane performance. SkyMeter has tracked 1 flights across 1 airframes and 1 operators, with LEFEVER BENJAMIN E the largest observed operator.