Ultrasonic air transducers using leaky waves on thin membranes are analyzed using perturbation and normal mode approaches. The transducers utilize the efficient coupling of ultrasonic energy to air through radiation of these leaky wave modes when their phase velocity is close to the sound speed in air. Theoretical results on optimum transducer dimensions and bandwidth estimation show that a minimum conversion loss of 8.7 dB with a 78&percent; fractional bandwidth is possible. Common micromachining materials are shown to be suitable transducer materials and result in feasible devices. This is demonstrated by fabricating a 580 kHz transducer using a silicon membrane bonded to a ring of PZT-5H. With this configuration the transducer is self line focusing. Results of through transmission experiments on silicon and transmission images on paper are reported. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.