Homebuilt Aircraft Fleet Sizes

[rwanttaja]

Per my usual practice, I downloaded the FAA Aircraft Registration database on 31 December. Here are the sizes of the number of aircraft that are registered as Experimental Amateur-Built. Note this does not include examples that are registered as Light Sport, or have a blank in the column where the type of registration is normally listed.

For each year, the fleet size shown is on the last day OF that year.

The last row has the overall fleet sizes.

Type	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Air Command	56	56	54	36	35	31	31	25	19	18
Aventura	81	79	77	71	68	63	65	57	50	49
Avid	477	474	453	359	359	343	352	342	296	289
Baby/Junior Ace	281	279	275	230	228	228	230	225	204	201
Bede BD-4	153	151	134	98	91	93	92	90	78	82
Bede BD-5	77	78	70	49	43	40	41	38	34	35
Benson Gyro	717	689	518	271	218	200	198	158	105	79
Bowers Fly Baby	272	270	244	183	168	167	167	160	140	139
Challenger	659	670	657	584	594	586	593	578	491	480
Christen Eagle	240	238	238	214	207	206	205	204	194	192
Cozy	164	165	164	158	160	164	165	163	151	151
Glasair	651	650	651	601	606	596	603	599	571	571
GlaStar/Sportsman	346	355	358	374	386	396	407	424	410	424
Harmon Rocket	79	83	84	88	85	87	85	85	80	77
Hatz	106	106	109	105	107	110	111	110	112	111
Kitfox	1009	1024	1027	905	918	936	950	946	875	871
Lancair (All Models)	814	830	850	835	847	855	875	866	824	826
Lancair IV	245	245	246	246	244	259	260	249	236	240
Midget Mustang	301	294	282	241	240	236	238	233	207	205
Murphy	186	187	182	173	171	171	176	174	156	161
Pietenpol	362	363	351	307	313	311	321	319	296	297
Pulsar/KIS	155	153	150	130	126	124	125	122	107	108
Quickie/Q2/Q200	303	297	277	168	148	140	143	130	109	103
RAF-2000 Gyro	123	126	124	113	114	110	111	90	69	69
Rand KR-2	350	346	314	194	175	167	167	154	132	132
RANS	656	682	684	627	638	659	677	673	636	651
RANS S-12	165	165	161	130	129	128	128	121	107	106
RANS S-6	205	216	216	200	201	208	213	211	204	205
RANS S-7	167	176	178	180	189	202	206	209	202	210
Rotorway	502	500	495	404	392	374	380	350	296	296
Rutan Long-EZ	495	491	482	428	418	416	417	406	379	380
Rutan Varieze	473	467	423	323	297	286	286	272	243	238
SeaRey	219	229	237	231	242	242	249	255	241	238
Sonerai	309	307	287	215	199	194	194	184	156	156
Sonex	265	310	346	383	420	451	484	497	486	510
Steen Skybolt	301	292	284	250	246	247	248	235	215	215
Stolp	509	495	458	404	396	399	402	385	358	349
Thorp T-18	311	305	290	261	259	259	262	257	239	238
Vans	5254	5477	5674	5745	5956	6110	6293	6414	6447	6634
Vans RV-3	183	179	172	155	154	158	160	152	149	149
Vans RV-4	976	982	987	952	956	955	965	958	921	921
Vans RV-6	1767	1781	1786	1763	1783	1775	1795	1796	1731	1742
Vans RV-7	788	874	946	1000	1066	1118	1170	1220	1244	1285
Vans RV-8	913	959	1012	1038	1082	1123	1161	1198	1215	1252
Vans RV-9	419	452	484	522	552	588	611	630	638	658
Vans RV-10	221	253	281	304	340	366	394	419	434	459
Vans RV-12 (EX-AB)	8	19	28	36	49	53	63	68	74	75
Vans RV-14	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	38	66	98
Velocity	236	237	245	232	237	235	240	236	222	224
Volksplane	222	220	176	104	95	85	86	76	48	47
Zenair	726	789	841	862	920	965	1013	1028	992	1013
Zenair CH-601	311	326	344	340	348	353	367	367	339	332
Zenair CH-701	290	309	316	323	326	341	344	340	310	328
Zenair CH-750	11	30	57	86	127	145	171	187	209	229
Overall	32682	33038	32041	27946	27909	28078	28830	28451	26572	26842

Ron Wanttaja

[rwanttaja]

It's interesting to note that 2019 saw a bit of a "bounceback" in Experimental Amateur-Built (EAB) numbers.

The usual year-to-year comparison used the total number of EAB-registered aircraft. However, this is deceptive, as mere subtraction produces only the net change. In other words, the number of new aircraft minus the ones removed from the registry in that year.

Prior to 2010, it didn't make much difference. Aircraft were removed from the registry only on the owner's request, and a lot of old homebuilts lingered on the rolls far past the time they were active. But in 2010, the FAA started its policy of requiring aircraft owners to renew their registrations every three years. Failure to do so would result in the FAA de-registering the aircraft.

As the table shows, a huge number of homebuilts were removed from the rolls by the end of the first cycle in 2013....about a quarter of the entire US homebuilt fleet. It's been cyclical since then, with another peak in deregistrations last year (ten percent of the fleet IN A SINGLE YEAR).

As the re-registration cycle is three years, I anticipated that 2019 would also see a major hit (e.g., 6 years from the end of the first cycle). As the data show, this didn't happen:

Year	EAB	Net Change	EAB Deregistered	New EAB Registered
2010	32682	768	309	1077
2011	33038	356	666	1022
2012	32041	-997	1951	954
2013	27946	-4095	5013	918
2014	27909	-37	1084	1047
2015	28078	169	781	950
2016	28830	752	225	977
2017	28451	-379	1296	917
2018	26572	-1879	2767	888
2019	26842	270	916	1186

Not only did the number of de-registrations drop, we also saw a good jump in the number of new homebuilt completions: 1186. This is actually the best it's been for the past ten years.

Ron Wanttaja

[rwanttaja]

It's interesting to note that 2019 saw a bit of a "bounceback" in Experimental Amateur-Built (EAB) numbers.

One caution is that this assessment is based on the 30 December FAA registry. It's possible the FAA will de-register a bunch of airplanes as of 31 December. I'll check the next time they update the downloadable file.

Edit: Looking at past years, they don't seem to do that (de-register a bunch of airplanes on the last day or the year). For instance, only three were de-registered on the last week of December 2018.

Ron Wanttaja

[Sam Buchanan]

Interesting data, Ron, thank you for compiling it.

It seems only a handful of vendors are responsible for new aircraft--Sonex, Rans, Zenith and of course the Vans juggernaut the primary ones. E-AB has definitely moved from plans and rudimentary kits to highly fabricated "assembly" aircraft.

[rwanttaja]

Interesting data, Ron, thank you for compiling it.

It seems only a handful of vendors are responsible for new aircraft--Sonex, Rans, Zenith and of course the Vans juggernaut the primary ones. E-AB has definitely moved from plans and rudimentary kits to highly fabricated "assembly" aircraft.

I took a look at the new aircraft in 2019; here's a partial breakdown:

Rotorway	7
Murphy	7
Glasair	8
Bearhawk	8
Bede	8
Velocity	8
Just	9
Pietenpol	9
Searey	9
Pitts (EAB)	10
Long EZ	11
Avid	13
Aircam	14
Challenger	16
Lancair	23
Glastar	26
Sonex	31
Kitfox	40
RANS	45
Carbon Cub	62
Zenith	65
Vans	249

This accounts for only about half the ~1180 new homebuilts in 2019. It is refreshing to see traditional homebuilts like the Pietenpol, Long-EZ, and BD-4 are still being added to the registry.

One thing to note is that ~60 of the "new" aircraft have construction dates listed before 2018, some as far back as the 1980s. I believe most of these are aircraft where the owner neglected to renew the registration, and either they or a subsequent owner has restored them to the registry.

Ron Wanttaja

[DonN]

I counted 103 Wittman W10's registered in a quick search .... with several typo's accounted for.

[rwanttaja]

I counted 103 Wittman W10's registered in a quick search .... with several typo's accounted for.

What are you using for search terms? I'm getting fewer, and would like to see what I'm missing.

Ron Wanttaja

[DonN]

I searched using W10, then read through the results. There were 3 pages, several with Wittman, Whitman, Tailwind, Tail Wind, etc.

[Al Burgemeister]

I find it interesting that there are no Dyke Deltas listed and yet there were a number of them each year at AirVenture. Might there be other low-number models missing from your list, Ron?

[rwanttaja]

I searched using W10, then read through the results. There were 3 pages, several with Wittman, Whitman, Tailwind, Tail Wind, etc.

Thanks, that helped me chase down the difference. Thought my filter-fu was messed up. :-)

Assuming you used this site...

https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinq...f_Inquiry.aspx

... it works by model code, not N-Number. This tells one how many aircraft of a given type *have* been licensed at one point, but does not address whether they're currently in the FAA registry.

If you cross-reference the model codes to the N-Number list, 32 of those Tailwinds have had their registrations canceled. My search using the downloaded database was only for active registrations (though, obviously, I do maintain a list of de-registered aircraft as well).

Here's the list of de-registered W10s.

N-NUMBER	Dereg year	MFR	MODEL	YEAR-MFR	MFR-MDL-CODE	SERIAL-NUMBER
17PV	2009	STRUBLE MATT	W-10	1996	056017O	969
598	2013	BRUSE EVERT HUBERT	TAILWIND W8MW10		0560250	589
320WT	2011	ALLEY BRIAN K	W-10 TAILWIND	1997	056033J	940
622TW	2005	GRIFFITH THOMAS W	WITTMAN TAILWND W-10		05603PD	622
270RS	2013	STEBER RONALD J	WITTMAN TLWND W-10		056048K	DR2
512DT	2013	TRAUGER DAVID J	WITTMAN TLWIND W-10	1999	056049C	DR1
1210U	2015	CHENEY HAROLD A	TAILWIND W-10		05604BS	979
6246D	1997	LOUCKS GARY D	TAIL WIND W-10		05604CR	1156
1194K	2000	DURRWACHTER JOHN C	WITTMAN TAILWND W-10		05604PD	1051
7079N	2000	MCCLANAHAN HOMER W	WHITMAN TAILWND W-10		05605FZ	1181
173RS	2001	BEAN ROBERT E	WITTMAN TAILWIND W10		05605S6	001032028RS
101XN	2013	KENNEDY FRANCIS M	WITTMAN/KENNEDY MW10		0560684	953
8470X	2001	FREUND FRIEDRICH W	WITTMAN TAILWIND W10		05607QZ	1178
543CL	2002	MCCOY ROBERT S	W10 TAILWIND		05611T9	01-1186
9XU	2006	SNAVELY GLENN E	WITTMAN TAILWIN-W-10		05612G0	1
488WB	2010	BYRD JOHN MCINTOSH	WITTMAN W-10		05613OF	1195
4031X	2008	MORPHEW BEN	WITTMAN W-10		056140J	545
40WB	2009	BERNARD WILLIAM R JR	TAILWIND W-10	2004	056158M	98-1100
688CS	2009	STEWART WILLIAM L	WITTMAN TAILWIND W10	2006	05621MD	1001
547S	2005	WHITLOCK DONALD C	TAILWIND W-10		05626J3	719
865JT	2018	WING JOHN R	WITTMAN TAILWIND W10	2011	05631AW	001
211TW	2018	ROBERT C CROFT / RALPH G CROFT	WITTMAN W10 TAILWIND		05633CQ	99-1130
79BT		TANNER-BILL	WITTMAN TAILWIND W10		9790506	461
49BT	2001	TANNER BOB J.	WITTMAN TAILWIND W10		9790507	49BT
9054R	2018	COUGHLIN JERRY E	W-10 TAILWIND	1981	9790509	438
62JE	2013	EVANS JAMES H	WITTMAN TAILWIND W10		9790514	448
625JS	2019	SHIVER JAMES H	TAILWIND W-10	1986	9790517	JS 466
8175G	2018	CLEMENT JAMES L	WITTMAN W-10	1989	9790525	436
38CW	2001	WOOD CALLBIE FRANKLIN JR	WITTMAN W-10		9790526	651
90TS	2005	SMITH TAYLOR	WITTMANW-10	1990	9790527	587
557CL	2017	ROE CLEO	WITTMAN TAILWIND W10	1992	9790531	557

Ron Wanttaja