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Kitfox LSA: Taildragger or Trike?

Were running out of ways to explain why what was supposed to be the shining salvation of aviation-the light sport aircraft industry-has thus far failed to deliver a three-run homer. Would-be buyers continue to complain that no one has produced a decent $40,000 LSA, but someone has produced a good one for a little more than twice that: The Kitfox. As a kit company, Kitfox has been around since the early 1980s in various iterations and its basic design idea has evolved through a number of variants and one European knockoff. And the big idea? A conventional welded-tube structure covered with fabric and with expansive clear plastic doors, a glass roof and a huge baggage compartment.

Paul Bertorelli
Verified

Were running out of ways to explain why what was supposed to be the shining salvation of aviation-the light sport aircraft industry-has thus far failed to deliver a three-run homer. Would-be buyers continue to complain that no one has produced a decent $40,000 LSA, but someone has produced a good one for a little more than twice that: The Kitfox.

As a kit company, Kitfox has been around since the early 1980s in various

iterations and its basic design idea has evolved through a number of variants and one European knockoff.

And the big idea? A conventional welded-tube structure covered with fabric and with expansive clear plastic doors, a glass roof and a huge baggage compartment. As if there werent a long enough list of signature features, the design is unique for its use of full-span flaperons in place of conventional ailerons. On the experimental side, the formula has proven successful enough to have put about 5000 kits into the field.

Price Point

Last year, with little fanfare, Kitfox announced an LSA version of the airplane, available as either a taildragger or as a tricycle gear airplane. If you cant decide which you prefer, Kitfox owner John McBean says the designs can be swapped back and forth without undue effort, although its not something an owner would be likely to do on a whim. (It takes a half day or so.)

McBeans idea was to produce a U.S-made LSA at a price point around $100,000, thus the base price for the Kitfox LSA is $83,500, equipped with just a radio and a portable GPS. But these days, nothing is shipped in minimal mode so typically, the Kitfox will invoice at about $100,000, equipped with a Dynon Skyview EFIS, a Garmin SL40 navcomm and a transponder. For basic LSA training and flying, we consider this lavishly equipped.

Engine choice for now is the popular 100-HP Rotax 912, but McBean says the company is looking at Lycomings new IO-233. The problem will be weight. At 170 pounds installed, the Rotax brings the Kitfox LSA in under 800 pounds,

making it one of the lighter products on the market.To hit the price point, the Kitfox is constructed like an experimental aircraft because it essentially is. Although it meets the 1320-pound LSA weight requirement, the Kitfox has essentially the same structure as the well-regarded kit aircraft. Extensive use of fabric helps keep the weight down, as do the clear plastic doors and skylight. There are some minor differences, such as carb heat for the Rotax, which is not used in the experimental version.

Flying It

Although its available in both taildragger and trike versions, we flew only the taildragger, since we tilt toward conventional gear for this class of airplane. There’s not much difference in performance between the two, although the handling is quite different.

Paul Bertorelli

Paul Bertorelli is Aviation Consumer’s Editor at Large. In addition to his valued contributions to Aviation Consumer, his in-depth video productions on sister publication AVweb cover a wide variety of topics that greatly contribute to safety, operation and aircraft ownership. When Paul isn’t writing or filming, he’s out flying his J3 Cub.