On Aug. 27, the shipping department at Van’s Aircraft had several orders to fill. By the end of the day, it had rolled out the 937th RV-12 kit empennage package onto the shipping dock, where it was picked up by a customer from Washington state, Richard Bangsund.
What’s the significance of 937? Combined with the S-LSA “fly-away” RV-12s the company has constructed, the total number of RV-12 empennage kits produced and sold now totals 1,000.
This is the sixth RV design to exceed 1,000 sales, according to company officials, who add four designs have exceeded 1,000 completions. The number of flying RVs listed on the company’s website now totals 9,178 — 407 are RV-12s.
“All of us at Van’s have known that the RV-12 is an excellent little airplane,” said company founder Dick (Van) VanGrunsven. “It’s nice to see the word spreading in the market place.
It’s certainly spread in his immediate family. Van and two of his brothers have built and fly RV-12s. So have a pair of company employees.
RV-12s have also been completed by several groups of young people participating in the Teenflight and Eagle’s Nest programs. S-LSA RV-12s are now operated by several flight schools, who report that their students love the way it flies, and often request the RV-12 even when other airplanes are available, according to company officials.