VANS

Van’s Aircraft, Inc. is an American manufacturer that produces kit aircraft, founded by Richard “Van” VanGrunsven in 1973. The company is headquartered at Aurora State Airport in Oregon and employs 113 people. Van’s RV series of aircraft includes a range of all-aluminum, low-wing monoplanes of monocoque construction, from the single-seat RV-3 to the latest RV-14. The RV series has been highly successful, with roughly 10,600 RV kits having been completed and flown as of November 2019, and thousands more under construction. Completion rates average approximately 1.5 per day, making them the most numerous of all homebuilt aircraft. In addition, the company announced in 2013 that it would begin selling assembled RV-12 model aircraft on a limited basis. As of December 2017, Van’s reported that its 10,000th aircraft, an RV-7 built in Martinsburg, West Virginia, had flown. RVs are classified as Experimental Amateur Built aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States, and are also accepted under the corresponding category by aviation authorities in many other countries around the world. The RV series includes several models, from the RV-1 to the RV-8, with different seating configurations, aerobatic abilities, and engine options.