10,000th Van’s RV Flies - Plane & Pilot Magazine

Averaging a new plane flying each day this year, the popular kit plane company has reached an impressive milestone

Plane & Pilot

Wednesday, December 06, 2017 at 07:41 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

Van's Aircraft has officially reached a milestone of 10,000 RV kit planes completed and flying, a number likely to be higher due to unreported builds.
The 10,000th reported flying Van's RV is an RV-7 built over three and a half years by David Porter, a CFI and EAA Chapter president.
New Van's RV kit planes have been taking to the skies at an impressive rate of about one per day over the past year.

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As of last month, 10,000 Van’s RV kit planes have officially made it through the assembly process and into the skies. There are most likely more than 10,000 flying, according to the company, but it doesn’t keep tabs on the progress of all of the many kits that head out of the factory doors, so the number is based on owners and builders who have reported back on their success.

David Porter with his Van's RV — *David Porter with his RV-7. Courtesy of Van’s Aircraft.*

The official 10,000^th flying Van’s is an RV-7 owned and built by CFI and EAA Chapter president David Porter of Martinsburg, West Virginia. The plane is the first he’s built and the process took him three and a half years to complete. Porter’s RV is the 4,311^th RV-7 empennage kit that Van’s has sold and (officially) the 1,662^nd RV-7 to fly. Over the last year, Van’s reports that new RVs have been taking to the air at an average rate of one a day.

Learn more at Van’s Aircraft.