APEV


APEV is a French aircraft manufacturer, founded by Daniel Dalby in 1997 and based in Peynier. The organization specializes in the design and manufacture of very light and inexpensive homebuilt aircraft.
The original design, the Pouchel, was based upon the 1930s Henri Mignet-designed Mignet Pou-du-Ciel, but constructed using three commercial household aluminium ladders to save construction time, cost and weight. The aircraft first flew on 14 March 1999 and 120 sets of plans were quickly sold. When the ladder manufacturer no longer wanted to sell ladders for aircraft construction, due to liability concerns, Dalby redesigned the aircraft to use aeronautical rectangular aluminium tubing instead, which resulted in a lighter and cheaper aircraft, the Pouchel II. This was further refined into the Pouchel Light and an electric powered version, the Pouchelec. Further designs followed these, including the two seat Bipouchel and the Pouchel Classic.

Aircraft

Model nameFirst flightNumber builtType
APEV Bipoucheltwo seat ultralight aircraft
APEV Cubchelsingle seat ultralight aircraft based on the Afford-A-Plane
APEV Demoichellesingle seat ultralight aircraft based on the 1908 Santos-Dumont Demoiselle
APEV Pouchel1999single seat ultralight aircraft constructed from three ladders
APEV Pouchel IIsingle seat ultralight aircraft
APEV Pouchel Lightsingle seat ultralight aircraft
APEV Pouchelecsingle seat electric aircraft
APEV Pouchel Classicsingle seat ultralight aircraft
APEV Scoutchelsingle seat ultralight aircraft