CubCrafters tells ANN that the first flight of its newest airplane, SPORT CUB, has just taken place. All first flight goals were achieved during a nearly one hour flight at CubCrafters company headquarters and manufacturing facility at Yakima Air Terminal/McAllister Field Airport (YKM). Nearly all of CubCrafters 60 employees were on hand to witness the successful first flight of SPORT CUB.

CubCrafters founder and CEO Jim Richmond, at the controls for the initial flight, was enthusiastic in his praise for SPORT CUB afterwards. “It flew just as we knew it would, which is to say it flew like a Super Cub, except it’s lighter and in many ways more responsive because of its lower empty weight.”

“In designing a completely new aircraft instead of a simple reproduction, SPORT CUB retains all the positive flight characteristics that previous ‘Cub’ aircraft have made almost famous: gentle handling, wide CG range, remarkable short field capabilities, large payload capacity, and so on. But in the new airplane, we improved those things we always wished we could, such as cockpit and cabin comfort, ease of entering and exiting the airplane, modern avionics, and newly engineered airframe materials and components, just to name just a few. With our first flight today, we validated our SPORT CUB design goals.”

Standard SPORT CUB features include the largest door and cabin in its class, full electrical system, lightweight starter, stow away rear seat for an even larger cargo area, fuselage welded cargo tie down points, adjustable pilot seat, aerodynamically balanced rudder and elevator, optional flaps and an all-digital flat panel. Powered by a 100hp Continental 0-200 engine, Vortex Generators and toe brakes are also standard equipment. Additionally, safety, structural, and airframe component improvements are designed into an all new fuselage, cowling, tail, wing spars, struts and attach fittings. Though the certification of the airplane is the ASTM Designation F2245 as provided in the FAA Light Sport Aircraft rule, SPORT CUB is not limited to use in the new category alone. Orders are on hand for private pilots in Alaska and elsewhere who will use SPORT CUB equipped with flaps and large tires as a utility aircraft…the same aircraft that others might use purely for sport and recreational purposes.

Detailing SPORT CUB manufacturing capabilities, Richmond commented “We will build SPORT CUB on the same production line that we currently build our FAR part 23, amendment 55 certified TOP CUB on. To date, we are the only company to participate in the new category that produces aircraft to that stringent standard.

With SPORT CUB, the same procedures will be used throughout: the same engineers oversee design and production processes and the same technicians will assemble the airplanes. Our facility is FAA certified to build FAA/PMA approved parts. We utilize modern CNC lathes, mills, routers, presses, and shears. We have heat treating capabilities, hydro-forming abilities, and state of the art welding and tube cutting capabilities. Our Quality Assurance department is equipped with a co-ordinate measuring system that can check the accuracy of a part to .0001”.

SPORT CUB makes it public debut at EAA AIRVENTURE on July 25th at the CubCrafters display, sites 112 and 113. On Tuesday, July 26th, at 9:30 am, CubCrafters will hold a media event at the site to discuss additional aircraft program details, including the formalization of a training aircraft fleet order for SPORT CUB by a new ‘Sport Pilot’ flight academy.

CubCrafters, founded in 1980 by current owner and CEO Jim Richmond, is located at Yakima Air Terminal/McAllister Field Airport (YKM) in Yakima, Washington. CubCrafters’ roots are in the 50 year history of classic ‘taildragger’ aviation, but its products and services – new aircraft, CAD-based design and engineering, CNC tooling and fabrication, ‘lean’ manufacturing, and award-winning tube and fabric aircraft restoration – are leading edge. CubCrafters offers two all new, FAA certified, ready to fly, aircraft: SPORT CUB, the long awaited redesign of the classic airplane that inspired the light sport category; and TOP CUB, the most capable two-place personal and utility aircraft. CubCrafters is also a recognized authority for re-building and modifying PA-18 Super Cubs and similar aircraft, and it stocks a broad range of STCs, PMA’d parts and modification kits for the existing fleet.

FMI: www.cubcrafters.com