Falconar Avia was a Canadian aircraft manufacturer based in

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of kits and plans for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook'', page 153-157, 307. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2012 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 52. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851 Founded in the 1960s by

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

Chris Falconar, the company created a new

aircraft fabric covering Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures. The de Havilland Mosquito is an example of this technique, as ar ...

process called ''Hipec''. The company also acquired a large list of aircraft designs that were either orphaned, like the

Fauvel AV.36 The Fauvel AV.36 was a single-seat tailless glider designed in France in the 1950s by Charles Fauvel. Although the "AV" in ''AV.36'' stands for ''Aile Volante'' (Flying Wing), it was not a true flying wing: it featured two large fins mounted o ...

glider, or long out of production and added their own designs to the line. The company provided plans and kits for all their designs, as well as parts and modification kits for other aircraft, including the

Ercoupe The ERCO Ercoupe is an American low-wing monoplane aircraft that was first flown in 1937. It was originally manufactured by the Engineering and Research Corporation (ERCO) shortly before World War II; several other manufacturers continued it ...

.Hunt, Adam & Ruth Merkis-Hunt: ''Finishing With Hipec'', Kitplanes June 2001 pages 70-74. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851 In 1963 Falconar partnered with designer

Marcel Jurca Marcel Jurca, (1921 – 19 October 2001) was a prolific designer of homebuilt aircraft in France. He is most well known for his Tempête and Sirocco designs. Early life Born in Romania, Jurca was impressed by the PZL fighters which often flew over ...

to produce the

Jurca Gnatsum The Jurca Gnatsum is a French homebuilt near scale replica aircraft based on the North American P-51 Mustang. Design & Development The Gnatsum (Mustang spelled backwards) is one of many wooden homebuilt designs from Romanian designer Marcel ...

. By 1967, Falconar recommended a large number of changes to the design, which resulted in Jurca leaving the project. The modified aircraft was developed as the

Falconar SAL Mustang The Falconar SAL Mustang, also called the 2/3 Mustang and the SAL P-51D Mustang is a Canadian amateur-built aircraft, originally produced by Falconar Avia and introduced in 1969. The aircraft is a scale replica of the North American P-51 Musta ...

, first flown in 1971 after significant cost overruns. Falconar Aircraft Ltd was sold to George F. Chivers and other investors and operated as Sturgeon Air Ltd with Falconar as an employee until 1973. In 1985 Falconar established a new Falconar Aviation Ltd. with the assets of A & B Sales and the rights to many Jurca plans. Falconar also carried on operations as president of

Hirth Hirth Engines GmbH is an engine manufacturer based in Benningen, Germany. It is currently a part of the UMS Aero Group. Hirth began manufacturing aero engines in the 1920s, was taken over by Heinkel in WWII to develop the Heinkel-Hirth jet en ...

engines during this time. In 1994 the company was dissolved following legal disputes and was reestablished in its current form as Falconar Avia Inc. in 1995. Falconar died on 9 September 2018. The company operations were wound up on 30 June 2019 and the design rights sold. Phil Hale of Manna Aviation bought the rights to the F-series aircraft, plus the Minihawk, 2/3 Mustang and the S14 Miranda. Leon McAtee of Excogitare LLC bought the rights to the Fauvel plans, while Todd Kammerdiener bought the rights to the Cubmajor and Cub Majorette.

Aircraft

References

External links

*
Official website archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Falconar Avia aircraft Aircraft manufacturers of Canada