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/aircraftinquiry/AcftRef_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

[rwanttaja]

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?
Hundreds, if not thousands.

Every homebuilt in the registry is a unique airplane; the builder is allowed to name it whatever they wish. This tends to stymie attempts to automatically count aircraft types. To a computer, a "Smith Lancair 4" is NOT the same as a "Jones Lancair IV", and if you try catalog them, you get a lot of one-count aircraft types.

Here's just the first page of my list of EAB aircraft in 2020. Notice the variety of types, and the different ways they're designated.


N-NUMBER

Regyear

MFR Name

Model Name

SERIAL NUMBER

MFR MDL CODE

YEAR MFR


1001A

2019

GUTZMAN CHARLES W

FALCO F8

CG3

0566069




1001W

2019

CANON BRADLEY E

RV6

60208

05620P0

2006


1001X

2019

BRUCE RYAN

LANCAIR IVP

LIV-459

05626CO

2012


10026

2019

STEELE GUY P

RANS S12XL AIRAILE

01020939

05614K1

2002


10027

2019

GORDON RONALD A

RANS COYOTE S6-ES

1295910ES

05603D0

1996


1002C

2019

DERREBERRY ROGER G

X AIR F

1001

059006Q

2005


10039

2019

GRADY WILLIAM T

RV-6

22275

05603DY

1997


1003Z

2019

GOOD G C/GOOD M J

KITFOX SERIES 5

S-95060136

05603DZ

1997


1004Z

2019

HILAND SPORT

MS-2

RGH-1

05601NB

1963


1005

2019

JAMES SNIDER

SUPERSTOL-XL

JA478-12-15

05638F6

2019


10059

2019

LONG DANNY P

CHALLENGER II LSS

CH2-0507-LSS-0130

05627TK

2009


1005C

2019

MCNEILLY JAMES T

LITTLE WING 3

01

05614K3

2005


10066

2019

CREIGHTON G DEWAYNE

FLIGHTSTAR IISC

324

05611Z0

2001


1006Q

2019

PRISELAC

SKYBOLT

PS-1

0565572

1979


1007

2019

BOWERS R J/BOARDMAN D A III

MURPHY MOOSE

130

05617KU

2005


1007P

2019

BRYAN COURTNEY

PHOENIX SL

101

05613TP

1986


1007Y

2019

LOBERGER JIM

QUICKIE Q2

2202

05645QW




1008Z

2019

PSOTA

MINIPLANE

1

83501JH

1961


10091

2019

HENDRICKSON CARL R

CHALLENGER II

CH2-0803-CW-2358

056203C

2007


1009G

2019

LEE JIM R

CURTISS ROBIN

1

05614K4

2003


1009Z

2019

WHITTMAN TAILWIND

W-8

DG1

97902YS

1963


100BU

2019

DORNIER

BU 133

19

2999006

1997


100C

2019

WRIGHT BEAUMONT B

LANCAIR IV P

LIV-032

056064Q

2001


100CD

2019

HOWELL CHARLES N

COZY

183

05616GT

1994


100CS

2019

SCURLOCK DONALD CRAIG

CHALLENGER II

CH204951324

05902GY

2007




This means each type needs its own search filters to not only find types that match, but to weed out types that DON'T match but have similar names. DonN's search for Wittman W10s is a good example...it got 103 hits for Wittman W10s, but also a batch of hits for Agusta AW109SPs (W10 buried in the name), DJI SW 1000 drones, Virus SW100s, etc.

I'm guessing Don eliminated them manually...easy enough to do, with a one-time ~120-row result. Not so easy when you're trying to find the results for ~60 different aircraft types, and you rerun the same search in January of each year!

Developing new filters, especially for rarer airplanes, is an adventure. Search the database for "Dyke Delta"? 13 hits. But then I notice that many owners use variations of "JD-2" as a model number. Add that to the search terms, and pow...three more hits.

But one is a Stewart JD2FF. Is that a Dyke? Looking online, no: It's a Foo Fighter. So modify the filters so the plane is excluded.

So...15 Dyke Deltas in the 2020 registry. But three are not listed as having Experimental Amateur-Built certification. So the official number, per my original table, would be thirteen.

It's actually kind of fun to do, a bit of detective work. But it's NOT fun if you're trying to chase down dozens of rarer types with awkward type names. So I go for the lower-hanging fruit; aircraft with many examples, or classics with unique names like the Volksplane.

The advantage is, the filters get saved and copied from year to year and don't have to be re-developed. And I've got the system automated on my PC; it takes me only 3 mouse clicks to invoke all the filters and generate the totals for ~60 homebuilt types.

Ron Wanttaja

[DonN]

Good work Ron - I was just surprised to not see any Tailwinds in your first post, as there is an active community around them. I do appreciate the complexity and effort in compiling such a list. In your results ofr Tailwinds, only one of Jim Clement's 10 or so is included - it's not easy to do!

[planecrazzzy]

You list Challenger.... But not Kolb...

Homer Kolb has planes in the Smithsonian ...

The planes I build....are by Steve Wittman (Buttercup) and Homer Kolb ( Firestar II )
.
Gotta Fly...

[rwanttaja]

You list Challenger.... But not Kolb....
198 Kolbs registered EAB, as of 1 January.

Ron Wanttaja