Plane Making A Dent In The Sport Plane Market Down Under

Numerous aircraft designers have paid homage to the classic Piper Cub, a design whose popularity never seems to wane. A shining example is the Savage Cub.. which is making a respectable name for itself, on its own merits.

Despite its resemblance to its namesake, the Savage Cub has a few differences, too. Most notable is its Rotax engine, available in 80 hp and 100 hp sizes. The Savage Cub is also available as a ready-to-fly factory-built aircraft, or in do-it-yourself kit form.

At this year's Australian International Airshow at Victoria's Avalon airport, local Savage Cub dealers Bruce and Helen Vickers were quite pleasantly surprised when their Savage Cub took top honors for Best Factory Built Recreational Aircraft.

"A superb effort, when you consider the number of aircraft in attendance at the show, which is considered the Australian equivalent of Oshkosh," X-Air Australia spokesman Michael Coates said.

A brief yet informative history of the Savage Cub found at its website sums up the origins of the airplane. "The idea was to create an aircraft with good STOL performance, classic design and good handling that would be economic and easy to both build and repair.

"A weakness for one of the legends of 20th century aviation -- the Piper Cub -- drove the designer of the Savage and his team, aeronautical engineers Bonaldo, Franchini and Vizzini (the latter had worked at Aeritalia, and spent a long period at Boeing in Seattle before moving on to Aermacchi) to build several prototypes that would become the basis for the Savage Cub we know today."

The Savage Cub went into production in Italy between 1997 and 1998. In 1999, production moved to the Czech Republic, and it is carried out by Zlin Aviation.

FMI: www.mcp.com.au/cub/index.html