I’m in that wonderful honeymoon design stage where everything is possible and even major changes can be completed in half an hour.
I’m referring to the Tiny Cedar Flea, of course. I currently have two candidates…
My first design candidate was the open cockpit version. Which has been joined by a closed-cockpit contender. Different airframe shapes, but wings and powerplants identical.
Oh – and the current preferred powerplant is the OpenPPG 33hp equivalent electric motor. With a second battery – over 2 hours of flight time.
Your preference?

For example, the open cockpit version is simple and easier to build. It will be constructed in two parts: Both top and bottom halves are basically the two halves of a normal cedar strip kayak. But it is also (being an open cockpit) quite draggy, and I’d expect a poor glide ratio because of this.
On the other hand, the closed version is more “racy”, far cleaner aerodynamically, will glide much better. But because of the closed-in cockpit with a hinged canopy, much more difficult to build. It is also a bit more cramped, and probably won’t accommodate larger pilots (although a “XXL” version is quite easy to design).
Both have identical wings: front: 4.4m, rear: 5.8m, with a combined wing area of 12.25 m^2. In the old language, this equates to: 131.8 ft^2 And that’s a lot of area for a plane with an empty weight of about 120kg (265lbs)
As for power, the OpenPPG electric motor (33hp equivalent) is advertised to give 70 minutes of flight (in a PPG – which are notoriously draggy machines – after all, they are dragging a huge parachute behind them). An amply-winged airplane should do far better than this. Even so, 70 minutes isn’t bad. But if one hooks up a second battery pack (20kg) and switches to the second pack in mid-flight, one gets 140 minutes (minimum). That’s 2hrs 20min. Not at all a bad endurance. I’m very comfortable with this.
So it comes down to preferences: sleeker profile or cheerful and open? Ease of build. Glide ratio. And the comfort of a closed cockpit for those less than balmy days.
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this.