Homebuilt Fleet Sizes

[rwanttaja]

This table shows the number of particular homebuilt types that were registered as of 3 January 2017. The value is the fleet size at the end of the labeled year.


Type

Count


Air Command

58


Aventura

90


Avid

430


Baby/Junior Ace

284


Bede BD-4

102


Bede BD-5

68


Benson Gyro

323


Bowers Fly Baby

185


Challenger

1205


Christen Eagle

232


Glasair

709


GlaStar/Sportsman

480


Harmon Rocket

94


Hatz

128


Kitfox

1167


Kolb (Ex-AB)

235


Lancair (All Models)

1030


Lancair IV

317


Midget Mustang

279


Murphy

218


Pietenpol

391


Pitts (EX-AB)

638


Pulsar/KIS

154


Quickie/Q2/Q200

178


Quicksilver EX-AB

169


RAF-2000 Gyro

145


Rand KR-2

230


RANS

901


Rotorway

517


Rutan Long-EZ

487


Rutan Varieze

319


SeaRey

343


Sonerai

234


Sonex

596


Steen Skybolt

288


Stolp

459


Stolp Starduster

392


Thorp T-18

304


Vans RV-3

176


Vans RV-4

1072


Vans RV-6

1985


Vans RV-7

1325


Vans RV-8

1319


Vans RV-9

687


Vans RV-10

453


Vans RV-12 (EX-AB)

63


Velocity

291


Volksplane

130


Zenair EX-AB

1015





Ron Wanttaja

[Auburntsts]

I'm guessing you pulled this data from the FAA registry by make which will exclude non-standard registrations (e.g. Van's RV-7 vs. Bob Smith Special 7)? I ask because the Van's numbers, and most likely other makes are low-- I estimate by possibly as much as 20%. For example, your data shows only 453 RV-10s while Vans site shows 819 self reported first flights--that's a pretty big discrepancy.

[gbrasch]

Interesting, to add to Todd's comment, here are the numbers from Van's site:

As of January 6, 2017 9,582 RV aircraft have been completed and flown!

Listed by Model


RV-3
295


RV-4
1,401


RV-6/6A
2,597


RV-7/7A
1,553


RV-8/8A
1,373


RV-9/9A
1,035


RV-10
819


RV-12
490


RV-14/14A
19

[rwanttaja]

I'm guessing you pulled this data from the FAA registry by make which will exclude non-standard registrations (e.g. Van's RV-7 vs. Bob Smith Special 7)? I ask because the Van's numbers, and most likely other makes are low-- I estimate by possibly as much as 20%. For example, your data shows only 453 RV-10s while Vans site shows 819 self reported first flights--that's a pretty big discrepancy.

I try to find non-standard registrations as much as I can... for the RV-10, for instance, I use:

Like "*RV-10*" Or Like "*RV 10*" Or Like "*RV10*" Or Like "*VANS 10*" It certainly doesn't catch the "Joes Ten" registrations, but its unknown how often those sorts of variations are made.

If anyone has an N-Number list, I'd be happy to run them against the master list to hopefully improve my type filters.

Also, I suspect Vans' list includes:
- Foreign-registered RVs, and
- US RVs that have been deregistered

...which mine doesn't. There are, for instance, about 350 RV-6s that have been removed from the registry. These will include both destroyed/abandoned aircraft as well as those exported to other countries. 22 RV-10s are listed on the deregistered list, of which 15 have been exported.

Ron Wanttaja

[rwanttaja]

Also, for the RV-12, I list ONLY those registered as Experimental Amateur-Built. My database shows 523 RV-12s of all certifications.

Ron Wanttaja

[Auburntsts]

I try to find non-standard registrations as much as I can... for the RV-10, for instance, I use:

Like "*RV-10*" Or Like "*RV 10*" Or Like "*RV10*" Or Like "*VANS 10*" It certainly doesn't catch the "Joes Ten" registrations, but its unknown how often those sorts of variations are made.

If anyone has an N-Number list, I'd be happy to run them against the master list to hopefully improve my type filters.

Also, I suspect Vans' list includes:
- Foreign-registered RVs, and
- US RVs that have been deregistered

...which mine doesn't. There are, for instance, about 350 RV-6s that have been removed from the registry. These will include both destroyed/abandoned aircraft as well as those exported to other countries. 22 RV-10s are listed on the deregistered list, of which 15 have been exported.

Ron Wanttaja

Dang, how could I miss the obvious about the foreign builds? Of course you are correct and that explains the discrepancy.

[1600vw]

I don't see one Fisher Airplane. I know of three that are registered and flying today. I own one. I am sure there are a lot more then the three I know about. Maybe Fisher was left out for a reason that I do not know about.

[rwanttaja]

I don't see one Fisher Airplane. I know of three that are registered and flying today. I own one. I am sure there are a lot more then the three I know about. Maybe Fisher was left out for a reason that I do not know about.
All aircraft types are extracted using a filter process that has to be set up manually. They do not automatically "pop out." If an aircraft type is not shown, it's because I haven't set up the appropriate filters for it.

Best I can do with my Fisher filters is 149 total aircraft. Of those, 96 are definitely Experimental Amateur-Built, 34 have ambiguous certification (none listed in the FAA registration entry), and 17 are Experimental Light Sport (which wouldn't be included in my EAB list).

Ron Wanttaja

[DaleB]

All aircraft types are extracted using a filter process that has to be set up manually. They do not automatically "pop out." If an aircraft type is not shown, it's because I haven't set up the appropriate filters for it.

Best I can do with my Fisher filters is 149 total aircraft. Of those, 96 are definitely Experimental Amateur-Built, 34 have ambiguous certification (none listed in the FAA registration entry), and 17 are Experimental Light Sport (which wouldn't be included in my EAB list).

Ron WanttajaThat's interesting. I was under the impression that a Light Sport certificate was for E-LSA airplanes, for which none of the Fishers would qualify. They can be Experimental, and they can meet Light Sport Aircraft limits, but they can't be registered as E-LSA. Unless you get a DAR who makes a mistake, and apparently those just never get corrected. I think there has been a fair amount of confusion and inconsistency around the Light Sport rules. For example, I own an RV-12 that was built and is registered as E-LSA... but the manufacturer is listed as the builder, not Van's as should be listed.

I can see why it's such a challenge to produce anything more than general results, or comarative year by year results from that database. There is very little consistency and almost no absolutes thay apply across the board.

[rwanttaja]

That's interesting. I was under the impression that a Light Sport certificate was for E-LSA airplanes, for which none of the Fishers would qualify. They can be Experimental, and they can meet Light Sport Aircraft limits, but they can't be registered as E-LSA. Unless you get a DAR who makes a mistake, and apparently those just never get corrected. I think there has been a fair amount of confusion and inconsistency around the Light Sport rules. For example, I own an RV-12 that was built and is registered as E-LSA.

You're absolutely correct...the way the rules are now. An airplane can be registered as Experimental Light Sport only if the kit maker goes through the process to get approval of an example of the aircraft under the Consensus standards

However, when the Light Sport process was implemented, there was a transition process. For instance, they allowed non-Part 103 compliant aircraft register as Experimental Light Sport without requiring showing compliance with ASTM standards.

At the same time, they allowed ANY homebuilt aircraft, not yet certified, to be licensed as Experimental Light Sport aircraft if it met the Part 1 definition. A number of homebuilders took advantage of the window (IIRC, it was about 18 months long) and licensed traditional homebuilts as ELSA. I was actually contemplating buying a Fly Baby project at the time, to license it as ELSA.

I strongly suspect that most, if not all, of those Fishers fell under that category. I don't have access to my database at the moment, but I believe all the Fisher LSAs I saw were the transition certification category. It's either 48A or 48B (48C is for aircraft transitioned from SLSA to ELSA).

Ron Wanttaja

[1600vw]

Ron thanks for explaining this. My Fisher is registered as an EAB. Experimental Amateur Built, I believe anyway.

Tony