Homebuilt Aircraft Fleet Size - 2023

[Wanttaja]

Per my usual practice, I downloaded the FAA registration database at the start of this year, and ran some processes to establish the current fleet size of a wide variety of homebuilt aircraft.

Some key notes:
1. This is based on aircraft registered as of 1 January 2024
2. ONLY aircraft listed in the registry as being Experimental Amateur-Built are included
3. There are about 5,000 aircraft in the US registry that have the names of common homebuilts, but no certification is listed. These are NOT included here.
4. If the Manufacturer says 1000 are flying, and I list only 500...well, first, see #2 and #3 above. Note also that I do not include aircraft that have been removed from the registry due to crashes, export, etc.
5. I select airplanes for this list due to my initial guess as to the prevalence of the type in the US registry. If a type is not listed here, that does not mean that there aren't any, it's just that I didn't run through the process to select out that type. I currently identify about 2/3rds of the homebuilts in the US registry.
6. Yes, I understand that homebuilts aren't necessarily registered under standard names. My process uses multiple variations to attempt to identify as many examples as I can without too many false hits.

Number of Registered Examples (includes only aircraft recorded as Experimental Amateur-Built)
Type	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	____________________________________________________________________________
Air Command	35	31	31	25	19	18	18	18	17	17
Aventura	68	63	65	57	50	49	50	48	47	49
Avid	359	343	352	342	296	289	280	278	271	267
Baby/Junior Ace	228	228	230	225	204	201	199	197	193	196
Bede BD-4	91	93	92	90	78	82	78	79	79	77
Bede BD-5	43	40	41	38	34	35	32	31	30	29
Benson Gyro	218	200	198	158	105	79	64	62	58	47
Bowers Fly Baby	168	167	167	160	140	139	135	130	132	131
Carbon Cub (EAB)	46	64	90	119	177	244	308	331	388	484
Challenger	594	586	593	578	491	480	476	461	447	442
Christen Eagle	207	206	205	204	194	192	192	193	191	194
Cozy	160	164	165	163	151	151	156	158	157	168
Glasair	606	596	603	599	571	571	563	558	565	568
GlaStar/Sportsman	386	396	407	424	410	424	438	443	450	454
Harmon Rocket	85	87	85	85	80	77	75	78	79	81
Hatz	107	110	111	110	112	111	110	113	117	119
Kitfox	918	936	950	946	875	871	889	887	885	920
Kolb (Ex-AB)	241	236	235	227	205	198	186	181	177	174
Lancair (All Models)	847	855	875	866	824	826	834	839	821	836
Lancair IV	244	259	260	249	236	240	243	244	245	246
Midget Mustang	240	236	238	233	207	205	204	202	199	194
Murphy	171	171	176	174	156	161	159	160	158	163
Pietenpol	313	311	321	319	296	297	289	284	278	282
Pitts (EX-AB)	613	617	625	608	548	543	534	522	522	528
Pulsar/KIS	126	124	125	122	107	108	105	102	102	98
Quickie/Q2/Q200	148	140	143	130	109	103	100	98	99	100
Quicksilver EX-AB	163	156	162	154	134	127	129	131	129	130
RAF-2000 Gyro	114	110	111	90	69	69	69	66	62	65
Rand KR-2	175	167	167	154	132	132	124	115	109	108
RANS	638	659	677	673	636	651	652	663	676	701
RANS S-12	129	128	128	121	107	106	109	104	102	101
RANS S-6	201	208	213	211	204	205	200	198	201	200
RANS S-7	189	202	206	209	202	210	208	213	217	222
Rotorway	392	374	380	350	296	296	287	283	274	286
Rutan Long-EZ	418	416	417	406	379	380	378	369	371	374
Rutan Varieze	297	286	286	272	243	238	231	222	219	217
SeaRey	242	242	249	255	241	238	235	236	235	242
Sonerai	199	194	194	184	156	156	158	155	145	144
Sonex	420	451	484	497	486	510	527	532	539	547
Steen Skybolt	246	247	248	235	215	215	215	211	208	210
Stolp	396	399	402	385	358	349	354	342	337	338
Stolp Starduster	349	351	352	337	310	302	308	301	294	294
Thorp T-18	259	259	262	257	239	238	236	238	235	236
Vans	5956	6110	6293	6414	6447	6634	6779	6960	7115	7336
Vans RV-3	154	158	160	152	149	149	149	149	146	146
Vans RV-4	956	955	965	958	921	921	921	922	915	931
Vans RV-6	1783	1775	1795	1796	1731	1742	1737	1750	1756	1771
Vans RV-7	1066	1118	1170	1220	1244	1285	1322	1358	1400	1457
Vans RV-8	1082	1123	1161	1198	1215	1252	1278	1304	1315	1338
Vans RV-9	552	588	611	630	638	658	677	689	702	719
Vans RV-10	340	366	394	419	434	459	492	530	570	616
Vans RV-12 (EX-AB)	49	53	63	68	74	75	74	81	82	85
Vans RV-14	0	0	14	38	66	98	134	182	234	277
Velocity	237	235	240	236	222	224	228	228	236	244
Volksplane	95	85	86	76	48	47	48	48	45	47
Zenair	920	965	1013	1028	992	1013	1028	1066	1091	1140
Zenair CH-601	348	353	367	367	339	332	325	323	313	321
Zenair CH-701	334	348	351	347	318	328	333	329	339	350
Zenair CH-750	127	145	171	187	209	229	247	285	306	334
Overall	27909	28078	28830	28451	26572	26842	26941	27117	27315	28075
2/5/2024	Ron Wanttaja

This is pretty positive...a net change of ~200 homebuilts from 2021 to 2022, but more than 700 in 2023. That's a net change, though. With the number of homebuilts deregistered in 2023, this put the total new homebuilts in 2023 at 1342. This is the highest since 2009, when the FAA started providing the deregistration data.

Ron Wanttaja

 

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