Issue4

Light Sport Aircraft by Dan Johnson Kitfox Brought Their 2017 Speedster to eaa AirVenture One of the stalwarts of the light aircraft sector is Kitfox, a brand known widely around the globe. First flown in November 1984 by Dan Denney, nearly 5,000 aircraft in various models have been produced. Nearly all were built from kits but the company also achieved Special Light Sport Aircraft status, thus allowing flight instruction for compensation. Kitfox, like all that appear somewhat similar, evolved from the original Avid Flyer by Dean Wilson in 1983. The Kitfox brand went through various owners after Denney sold and today resides with John McBean though the company has always hailed from Idaho. “Working from the very successful and robust Kitfox S7 Super Sport, we created a clipped wing, aerodynamically refined, and superbly stylized taildragger Speedster that is guaranteed to get the heart rate up to redline,” said McBean in news announced just before AirVenture 2017 was set to begin on Monday, July 25th. Using the fuel injected Rotax 912iS, the Idaho company said its 2017 Kitfox Speedster “ is significantly larger and faster than its earlier namesake, with a great useful load and excellent short field performance.” They added, “Handling can only be described as ‘acro-like.’” If you were lucky enough to visit AirVenture this year, you could see the new model at Kitfox’s show site in what’s called the North Aircraft Display Area where you could also find most of the light kitbuild aircraft companies. Typical of productions by McBean’s present-day Kitfox, viewers saw a finely finished flying machine. You can see a video of the Kitfox Speedster flying at AirVenture 2017 by visiting YouTube!

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