It's been well over twenty years since we first started playing
in the skies, courtesy of the first generation of Kitfoxes... and
since then, the little airplane that launched thousands of pilots
toward aircraft ownership has been through great times... and not
so great times... but above all, it has survived.
It seems "not so long ago" that Denney Aerocraft conjured up the
first Kitfox to compete with Dean Wilson's Avid Flyer. Starting out
in November of 1984 in Boise, Idaho, the original 'Fox was a
very lightweight, two-place sport bird with two-stroke power and
excellent STOL manners. From the beginning, the bird featured
folding wings, was easily trailered, and set new standards in
affordability. While only six Model 1 Kitfox's were delivered the
first year, over 4,000 Kitfox kits have since been delivered to
builders throughout the world.
With Dan Denney at the helm, four versions of the Kitfox were
offered to the flying public... and when the company was bought and
re-emerged as SkyStar Aircraft Corporation in 1992, SkyStar soon
followed suit with a new Kitfox, the Series 5. This was a larger
aircraft that opened up the mission profile of the breed a bit to
allow for serious cross-country flying while still retaining the
STOL and playful abilities of the previous generations. Available
in both taildragger as well as trike-gear, a sixth generation
appeared in 2000 when an employee group acquired the company. A
Series 7 bird was eventually offered but the excitement over that
aircraft was short-lived when the company encountered serious
business difficulties and folded in 2005.
That was then... and now the company is back as a leaner entity,
under the watchful eye of Kitfox expert John McBean and his wife,
Debra. Since April of 2006, Kitfox has been back in business as
Kitfox Aircraft LLC, and a few months ago we got John to stand
still long enough to talk about getting the Kitfox dynasty back on
its feet.
Aero-TV Catches Up With A Classic: The
Kitfox
About Aero-TV: It's DEFINITELY Show
Time!!!!
OK, folks, here we go... we are NOW initiating the first
feature programming series for Aero-TV... we're going to take it
slow, but we're also going to try and be steady about this. DO
UNDERSTAND that this is the most complex media program we've ever
undertaken and what you're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg...
but from here on out, we will be doing our best to educate,
inform, and entertain YOU about all aspects of the exciting worlds
of aviation and aerospace.
If you've been an observer of the media and associated media
industries over the last few years, it's not hard to mistake the
fact that a massive revolution is taking place. Old sources for
news and information are falling by the wayside, having to change
their modus operandi or risk obsolescence (or extinction).
Electronic media and print media are both under the assault of
progress, and the online world has been a cornerstone for
revolutionary change.
We've been ready to go for a while, but to be honest, there's so
much more to this program than we've alluded to, and so we've been
building and planning a massive new organization within ANN. That
said, we're hiring talented new people as
fast as we can find them (a far more difficult
task than we had imagined -- REALLY good people are hard to find),
and we're brainstorming at speeds that would make a deorbiting
Space Shuttle feel like a slug. Suffice it to say that we wanted to
do this right, rather than right-now, and that the development of
this program has been the most carefully pursued undertaking we've
ever undertaken.
E-I-C Note: The
complete feature shown above is embedded in this
story, with most of the slick and useful functionality
otherwise available on the main Aero-TV site (which will be
upgraded aggressively over the next few weeks). The ability to
embed a video on another web page is but one of the hundreds
of amazing little features that we've worked hard on, for many
months now, to implement in different phases of the initial
release of Aero-TV. It is, BY NO MEANS, the only way to enjoy
unaltered Aero-TV programming on other parts of the web... as we
have extensive plans for future functionality, but this
feature allows those with an interest in a specific Aero-TV News or
Feature program to embed it on a different web site, though we
must note that we reserve the right to forbid such use for those
sites or purposes that we do not feel fit in with the proper
mission of the Aero-News Network, Inc.
Webmasters or Administrators of well-trafficked aviation or
aerospace related sites, are welcome to contact the Publisher to
start conversations on how they may be able to leverage some of the
immense power of Aero-TV programming for their sites and
constituency by clicking the I Want Aero-TV For
MY Website! link.
Coming Soon!
Aero-TV Shows You How To Build A Glasair Sportsman
2+2 in RECORD TIME, Gets Up Close And Personal With the Newest
Continental Powerplant To Grace A Cessna, Gets A Sobering Briefing
From P.A.S.S., Flies The Piper Matrix, Hears What's Hot At Blue
Moutain Avionics, Checks Out More "HIGH" Tech at I/ITSEC
2007, Hears From AOPA On Critical Aviation Issues, Spills Some
Juicy (and HIGHLY Detailed) Cirrus G3 Info, Shoots A Clarity Aloft
Headset Profile, Scores A BUNCH of LSA Reports, and SO
MUCH MORE!!!!! Do NOT Miss Them!
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.15.24)
See All