KITPLANES FOR AFRICA manufacturers of the Bushbaby range of aircraft
Being the first new generation airplane produced in Africa, the Bushbaby family has proven to be not just South Africa, but Africa’s most successful kit aircraft.
Situated at the Petit Airfield, Gauteng, South Africa, Kitplanes for Africa produces 12-15 airframe kits and builds up 6 airplanes to test-flight completion per year. The facility is also home to Komati Flight Academy offering weight shift and light sport flight training on tail or nose-wheel aircraft. The school specializes in tailwheel training and advanced bush flying. See our school website Komati Flight Academy for more details
To date Kitplanes for Africa has produced in excess of 300 airframes, some of which have been exported to Australia, UK, USA, Netherlands, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Kitplanes for Africa began producing the Bushbaby in 1993. The initial aircraft was modeled on the popular and very successful Kitfox 4. In 2003 the airframe benefited from some significant upgrades and the Explorer mk1 was born. During 2008 development on the Explorer continued and the Explorer Mk2 saw the light. The Mk2 Explorer has a larger luggage area than the Mk1, The same elevator as the Safari and a longer sleeker engine cowl. These small changes took the Explorer to the next level and gained instant popularity from our customers.
In 2008 development of the the Safari LSA started and continued to 2010 when the first Safari LSA’s were produced and sold. The Safari LSA is an all new aircraft that has an 48 inch wide cockpit and firewall, 400mm longer fuselage, higher tail fin, external luggage door, massive luggage capacity, larger elevator and rudder.
During testing of the Safari LSA it was evident that the Safari structure far exceeded the LSA standards and that a higher certification can be sought. It was decided to start testing the Safari LSA to the EASA CS-VLA standards. This meant that the weight was increased from 600kg to 700kg. The results were outstanding and apart for some minor modifications in one or two areas the Safari passed all the structural testing to with ease.
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)