The UltraFlight Lazair is a family of Canadian designed and built twin-engine ultralight aircraft that were sold in kit form between 1979 and 1984.

[2] He named it Lazair for several reasons, including a reference to the successful Laser sailing dinghy of Canadian design, as a contraction of "lazy air" due to the slow cruising speed, and as an allusion to "laissez-faire".

The improvement in performance proved definitive and in this form they demonstrated the prototype Lazair at the EAA Sun 'n Fun International Fly-In and Expo, Florida, in March 1979.

It won the award for best home-built microlight, repeating the accolade at Oshkosh that year and receiving thirty-three orders on the spot.

[4][6] The Lazair I is a single-seat conventional high-wing monoplane with an open fuselage frame, inverted V-tail and twin tractor propellers.

[citation needed] This was then changed to translucent Mylar PET polymer film, attached to the airframe with single- and two-sided tapes.

The Mylar proved to have a short service life due to UV damage, so it was eventually replaced by the more expensive Tedlar PVF film.

[2][7] Kramer opted for two engines instead of one because he wanted to use two of the largest chainsaw motors to obtain the total of 11 hp (8.2 kW)[citation needed] which he deemed necessary to make his "powered glider" fly with performance that was acceptable to him.

[2][7] The Lazair was one of the first ultralights to incorporate twin engines, greatly improving the reliability and safety of this class of aircraft.

[10] The Lazair was thus built from standard aircraft materials, but it had many innovative design features for an ultralight, including the aerofoil, winglets, inverted-V tail and ruddervators, transparent film covered flying surfaces and twin engines.

[2][10] Later models incorporated many refinements and options including twin seating in tandem, more powerful engines, fuselage fairings and a conventional control stick pivot position.

[4][6][10][11] In 1979, Kramer formed UltraFlight Incorporated to produce the design in his home town of Port Colborne, Ontario.

[citation needed] Production ended in 1984, the company citing "liability concerns" and the resulting cost and availability of insurance as the reason.

[citation needed] The initial model Lazair was a single-seater with a 36.3-foot (11.1 m) wingspan and was powered by two 5.5 hp 100 cc Pioneer chainsaw engines, directly driving plastic propellers in tractor configuration.

These single-cylinder engines were used extensively in forest fire fighting water pumps and had proved reliable in that application.

[5] The "SS" is the "Surveillance Special" which was designed for police use, which included the Elite airframe and the 5KFM 25 hp (19 kW) engines also used on the two-seat Lazair II.

[2] The only[citation needed] Lazair SS EC aircraft ever produced was employed by the Monterey Park Police Department in California.

The aircraft is powered by twin Joby JM1 powerplants with Jeti SPIN Pro 300 controllers and dual 16 cell 4 amp-hour battery packs that produce 63 volts, mounted in the wings.