Birdman Enterprises Limited was a Canadian aircraft manufacturer that commenced business in 1973 and became well known for its line of

hang gliders Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

and later its ultralight aircraft until its demise in late 1987.Jones, Terry: ''Birdman WT-11 Chinook – A Cabin-Class "Ultra" Lightplane''. Birdman Enterprises, 1984.Jones, Terry: ''Birdman WT-11 Chinook – It's A Perfect Aviation Package''. Birdman Enterprises, 1984.Hunt, Adam: ''Pilot Report: Chinook 2S''.

Canadian Owners and Pilots Association The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) (french: Association canadienne des pilotes et propriétaires d'aéronefs) is a federally registered not-for-profit association that provides information and advocacy services for Canadian pilot ...

''COPA Flight'', October 1999. A redesigned version of the company's Chinook ultralight design was later placed back in production by Aircraft Sales and Parts of

Vernon, British Columbia Vernon is a city in the Okanagan region of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is northeast of Vancouver. Named after Forbes George Vernon, a former MLA of British Columbia who helped establish the Coldstream Ranch in nearb ...

in 1989 as a

kit aircraft Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

.Downey, Julia: ''2008 Kit Aircraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 24, Number 12, December 2007, page 37. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, pages B-72 & E-9. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter – Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook'', page 105. BAI Communications. Hunt, Adam: ''Flying the ASAP Chinook Plus 2 with Ottawa's Capital Air Sports''.

''COPA Flight'', May 2002.

History

The founder of Birdman Enterprises, Terry Jones, first learned to fly in 1970 from Bill Moyes, the originator of the modern sport of hang gliding. In 1973 Jones started designing and building his own gliders in Edmonton, Alberta. He named the company after the nickname that he had personally acquired as a hang glider pilot, "Birdman Jones". The Birdman MJ-4, MJ-5 and MJ-6 were very successful designs and sold in large numbers. Next the company developed a power package for self-launching hang gliders and started marketing it in 1979 as the

Altair Altair is the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila and the twelfth-brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Aquilae, which is Latinised from α Aquilae and abbreviated Alpha Aql ...

. In 1980 the company introduced its first ultralight aircraft design, the Birdman Atlas, which was based on the

Eipper Quicksilver Quicksilver is a line of single and two-place high wing, single-engine, ultralight aircraft that evolved from weight-shift hang gliders including Bob Lovejoy's High Tailer. The earliest powered version, the Quicksilver C, was created as a se ...

. Operational experience resulted in a greatly improved Atlas model for 1981. The redesigned aircraft provided more lift, engine thrust and a better rate of climb. A total of more than 500 were produced. In 1981, the company hired experienced

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

hang glider designer Vladimir Talanczuk, who had recently immigrated to Canada. He was assigned the task of designing a "clean-sheet" ultralight aircraft for mass-production as a kit. Talanczuk's eleventh design, the WT-11, became the Birdman WT-11 Chinook (later redesignated the Birdman Chinook 1S), first flying on 12 December 1982 and entering production the following year.Taylor, John WR, ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1987-88'' page 544, Janes Publishing Limited. As a result of its focus on ultralight aircraft, including a new factory in St. Paul, Alberta that became known as Canadian Ultralight Manufacturing, Birdman ceased production of hang gliders in 1983. With the WT-11 single-seat ultralight in production, Talanczuk produced the design for the planned Chinook two-seat trainer, which was designated as the Chinook 2S (2 seater). The 2S entered production in 1984.

China Daily ''China Daily'' () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. T ...

newspaper carried a story on 9 November 1985 announcing that the government of the People's Republic of China had signed a ten-year contract with Birdman Enterprises to construct 5,000 aircraft in China for sale worldwide. This was announced as part of China's strategy to diversify military production into civil aircraft as part of the nation's modernization program.Taylor, John WR: ''Janes All the Worlds Aircraft 1986-87'' page 544, Janes Publishing Company, 1986. Between starting Chinook production in 1983 and going out of business in late 1987, Birdman produced approximately 700 WT-11 and 2S Chinooks.

Successor

In 1988 one of the owners of a Chinook 2S, Brent Holomis, decided to start producing Chinook parts to support the existing fleet of aircraft. Once parts were available from his new company Aircraft Sales and Parts (ASAP), Holomis next embarked on a redesign of the Chinook 2S and by 1989 the ASAP Chinook Plus 2 was available in kit form. The Chinook Plus 2 remains in production.

Aircraft

References

External links

{{Aircraft Sales and Parts Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Canada Defunct manufacturing companies of Canada Companies based in Edmonton