2021 EAB Aircraft Registration Summary

As usual, I've downloaded the end-of-year FAA registration database and run my various processes to examine the trends for a number of homebuilt aircraft types. Note that these count only aircraft registered as Experimental Amateur-Built. It does not count aircraft that do not list a certification type (about 5,000 aircraft with homebuilt-like names) nor aircraft registered as Special Light Sport or Experimental Light Sport (e.g., SLSA or ELSA RV-12s).

Type	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Air Command	36	35	31	31	25	19	18	18	18
Aventura	71	68	63	65	57	50	49	50	48
Avid	359	359	343	352	342	296	289	280	278
Baby/Junior Ace	230	228	228	230	225	204	201	199	197
Bede BD-4	98	91	93	92	90	78	82	78	79
Bede BD-5	49	43	40	41	38	34	35	32	31
Benson Gyro	271	218	200	198	158	105	79	64	62
Bowers Fly Baby	183	168	167	167	160	140	139	135	130
Carbon Cub (EAB)	29	46	64	90	119	177	244	308	331
Challenger	584	594	586	593	578	491	480	476	461
Christen Eagle	214	207	206	205	204	194	192	192	193
Cozy	158	160	164	165	163	151	151	156	158
Glasair	601	606	596	603	599	571	571	563	558
GlaStar/Sportsman	374	386	396	407	424	410	424	438	443
Harmon Rocket	88	85	87	85	85	80	77	75	78
Hatz	105	107	110	111	110	112	111	110	113
Kitfox	905	918	936	950	946	875	871	889	887
Kolb (Ex-AB)	248	241	236	235	227	205	198	186	181
Lancair (All Models)	835	847	855	875	866	824	826	834	839
Lancair IV	246	244	259	260	249	236	240	243	244
Midget Mustang	241	240	236	238	233	207	205	204	202
Murphy	173	171	171	176	174	156	161	159	160
Pietenpol	307	313	311	321	319	296	297	289	284
Pitts (EX-AB)	639	613	617	625	608	548	543	534	522
Pulsar/KIS	130	126	124	125	122	107	108	105	102
Quickie/Q2/Q200	168	148	140	143	130	109	103	100	98
Quicksilver EX-AB	170	163	156	162	154	134	127	129	131
RAF-2000 Gyro	113	114	110	111	90	69	69	69	66
Rand KR-2	194	175	167	167	154	132	132	124	115
RANS	627	638	659	677	673	636	651	652	663
RANS S-12	130	129	128	128	121	107	106	109	104
RANS S-6	200	201	208	213	211	204	205	200	198
RANS S-7	180	189	202	206	209	202	210	208	213
Rotorway	404	392	374	380	350	296	296	287	283
Rutan Long-EZ	428	418	416	417	406	379	380	378	369
Rutan Varieze	323	297	286	286	272	243	238	231	222
SeaRey	231	242	242	249	255	241	238	235	236
Sonerai	215	199	194	194	184	156	156	158	155
Sonex	383	420	451	484	497	486	510	527	532
Steen Skybolt	250	246	247	248	235	215	215	215	211
Stolp	404	396	399	402	385	358	349	354	342
Stolp Starduster	357	349	351	352	337	310	302	308	301
Thorp T-18	261	259	259	262	257	239	238	236	238
Vans	5745	5956	6110	6293	6414	6447	6634	6779	6960
Vans RV-3	155	154	158	160	152	149	149	149	149
Vans RV-4	952	956	955	965	958	921	921	921	922
Vans RV-6	1763	1783	1775	1795	1796	1731	1742	1737	1750
Vans RV-7	1000	1066	1118	1170	1220	1244	1285	1322	1358
Vans RV-8	1038	1082	1123	1161	1198	1215	1252	1278	1304
Vans RV-9	522	552	588	611	630	638	658	677	689
Vans RV-10	304	340	366	394	419	434	459	492	530
Vans RV-12 (EX-AB)	36	49	53	63	68	74	75	74	81
Vans RV-14	0	0	0	14	38	66	98	134	182
Velocity	232	237	235	240	236	222	224	228	228
Volksplane	104	95	85	86	76	48	47	48	48
Zenair	862	920	965	1013	1028	992	1013	1028	1066
Zenair CH-601	340	348	353	367	367	339	332	325	323
Zenair CH-701	331	334	348	351	347	318	328	333	329
Zenair CH-750	86	127	145	171	187	209	229	247	285
Overall	27946	27909	28078	28830	28451	26572	26842	26941	27117

Ron Wanttaja

Thank you!

I really like the service you provide with the community, as it gives a window into where the E-AB community's head is. Some planes have gone down in popularity (as some fall off, there's not much to replace them), some have risen.

And a few remain steady over the time. The Pietenpol is the antithesis of C&C cut aluminum sheets with pre-drilled holes, yet it's numbers remain relatively unchanged since 2013.

Aw gee Frank I thought you were gonna bust Ron’s chops for not having a line item for all the Nieuports on the registry;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Frank Giger

Thank you!

I really like the service you provide with the community, as it gives a window into where the E-AB community's head is. Some planes have gone down in popularity (as some fall off, there's not much to replace them), some have risen.

And a few remain steady over the time. The Pietenpol is the antithesis of C&C cut aluminum sheets with pre-drilled holes, yet it's numbers remain relatively unchanged since 2013.

---

It's even more interesting in that the figures I post are the *net* aircraft. In the nine-year period covered here, about 250 Pietenpols were removed from the FAA registry. The net has only dropped by 25 aircraft or so...that means that about 225 airplanes were added! Some of them are probably previously-deregistered aircraft, but that's still pretty good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Airmutt

Aw gee Frank I thought you were gonna bust Ron’s chops for not having a line item for all the Nieuports on the registry;)

---

That's nothing, I'm waiting for an RVer to complain "Why do you show only 6940 EAB RVs on the FAA registry, and Van's says 11,000 have been completed!"

Ron "Smacking one fist into his palm menacingly" Wanttaja

The one that comes as a surprise is Velocity. The baseline number of airplanes is relatively small, the factory is still in operation, yet the number of registered aircraft ain't moving.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kyle Boatright

The one that comes as a surprise is Velocity. The baseline number of airplanes is relatively small, the factory is still in operation, yet the number of registered aircraft ain't moving.

---

Well, you are looking at the net change. During 2021, four EAB Velocities were removed from the registry. So four new ones were added to keep the net at 228. Still, that's not a lot....

Ron Wanttaja

While I appreciate the work done in reporting this, and I understand the issues with searching the FAA's database when anyone can call their aircraft anything they want and the plethora of typo's, I also have to protest the glaring absence of the Breezys, Woody's Pushers, and certainly all the Wittman aircraft, Tailwinds in particular.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DonN

While I appreciate the work done in reporting this, and I understand the issues with searching the FAA's database when anyone can call their aircraft anything they want and the plethora of typo's, I also have to protest the glaring absence of the Breezys, Woody's Pushers, and certainly all the Wittman aircraft, Tailwinds in particular.

---

And every year, people complain of the lack of Dyke Deltas, Polywagons, VariViggens, Stits Playmates, Windwagons, etc. Inclusion on the list above is not a reflection of how important I feel the designs are, though I make an effort to include the most-numerous examples. The less-numerous designs are often included due to curiosity or the fact that I *know* someone who owns a particular design (this started as an EAA Chapter presentation). The Benson Gyrocopter had the *highest number of registrations*, back when I first started running these analyses back in 1998. That's why it's still included. In any case, it really highlights how the FAA's re-registration process has hammered homebuilt totals.

If you add up the totals for the aircraft types for 2021 in the above table, you get 18,318 aircraft. Yet the total fleet size, as shown on the last line, is 27,117. So yes, there are about 9,000 homebuilts of other types that are not individually split out.

As you mention, the homebuilt's make/model are up to the builder's whim, as are the actual spelling of the names. That's what gets fun when trying to identify aircraft. I mean that literally; it's kind of a detective story.

Take Breezies, for instance. I first ran a Model name search for "*Breezy*". Then I noticed that a lot of the Breezies have a "RLU-1" designation. So then I add "*RLU*" to the filter, and get eight additional registrations that *don't* have "Breezy" in the name. It doesn't catch the one called "R.L.U.-1" (the periods throw it off), but that one also already had "Breezy" in the name anyway.

But there's still a lot of uncertainty. Is a "GE-1 Breezy" the same aircraft? What about a "Naked Angel Breezy" (N11DD)? I'm guessing they are...but with the total "hits" on the filter only coming to 80 or so, the accuracy of the tally comes into question. And, of course, the same filters have to be applied to the "Make" entry, too, because some people put "Breezy" into the "Make," not the "Model".

There's LESS worry about more-numerous types such as the RV-6. I still have to search for "RV-6", "RV6", "RV 6" and even "VANS SIX" (with wildcards of course), but almost all builders put a variation of "RV" and "6" in the model name. Still some misses, still some OTHER types of aircraft, but when you've got nearly 2,000 airplanes, the false hits and the misses have less impact.

The table above is the result of building about sixty such filter sets, and running them against a each year's FAA registry. Once the filters have been developed, they're added to a macro I've generated. With the macros, generating the above table takes only a few minutes.

I have added types to the automated processors. A year or two back I realized that the Carbon Cub was giving some of the RV models a run for their money, and added the type. Where the effort comes in is the need to run the same effort against the individual databases running back to 2008 (I post only back to 2013 because of the forum's posting-size limit). THAT is time-consuming, as the appropriate filters have to be copied to each individual registration year and, sometimes, updated to reflect the older versions of the registry.

Anyway, now you know.

Ron Wanttaja

Speaking of the FAA's Re-Registration process (started in 2010), this table shows the homebuilt types that lost 50% or more of their registrations since 2008.

Type	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Air Command	54	56	56	56	54	36	35	31	31	25	19	18	18	18
Bede BD-4	158	155	153	151	134	98	91	93	92	90	78	82	78	79
Bede BD-5	78	77	77	78	70	49	43	40	41	38	34	35	32	31
Benson Gyro	750	720	717	689	518	271	218	200	198	158	105	79	64	62
Bowers Fly Baby	270	269	272	270	244	183	168	167	167	160	140	139	135	130
Quickie/Q2/Q200	306	305	303	297	277	168	148	140	143	130	109	103	100	98
Quicksilver EX-AB	343	345	348	335	296	170	163	156	162	154	134	127	129	131
Rand KR-2	347	349	350	346	314	194	175	167	167	154	132	132	124	115
Rutan Varieze	480	476	473	467	423	323	297	286	286	272	243	238	231	222
Sonerai	315	309	309	307	287	215	199	194	194	184	156	156	158	155
Volksplane	224	222	222	220	176	104	95	85	86	76	48	47	48	48

Ron Wanttaja