Monday 8 October 2012

Homegrown Single Seat Homebuilt Aircraft of New Zealand - Bantam B 10

The Bantam B 10 was a significant aircraft for the New Zealand aviation industry as it was the fore-runner of more than 350 Bantams that have been manufactured at Te Kowhai by Micro Aviation.

In the 1980's Max Clear travelled to the United States looking for a microlight aircraft to purchase, but he could not find anything that suited. He returned home and formed a group of ten like minded Kiwi's to build a completely new aircraft which turned out to be the single seat Bantam B 10, which first flew in late 1983. The original plan was to build 10 aircraft - one for each of the group. The aircraft turned out to be so successful that a total of 15 were made and thus Micro Aviation was born.  They were all registered over a short period of frantic microlight activity in just over one year.  9 of the 15 Bantam B 10's are still currently registered on the New Zealand Civil Register.

The Bantam B 10 was made from commercially available materials and was powered by a Rotax 503 engine.

I am not sure if photos of all the Bantam B 10's exist, but thanks to Blue Bus for these 2 photos.  It would be great if any blog readers can  post photos of other Bantam B 10's.

The prototype, ZK-FGI (c/n 0001) was first registered to D and JA Smith of Te Kowhai on 7/9/83.  It is still current with Stan Hyde of Feilding.

ZK-KGG (c/n 0011) covered up at Timaru, but showing the lines of the B 10 to better effect.

The list of Bantam B 10's is as follows (I assume the the first 10 owners were the original group of 10 builders):

c/n 0001 - ZK-FGI - registered 7/9/83 to D & JA Smith of Te Kowhai.
c/n 0002 - ZK-ZII - registered 27/3/84 to R J Evans-McLeod of Frankton.
c/n 0003 - ZK-JLD - registered 26/3/84 to J & L Dick of Hamilton.
c/n 0004 - ZK-NJB - registered 26/3/84 to NW & JA Bailey of Hamilton.
c/n 0005 - ZK-FIF - registered 26/3/84 to AM Harrison of Hamilton.
c/n 0006 - ZK-MWV - registered 26/3/84 to MW Vickers of Frankton.
c/n 0007 - ZK-RDB - registered 5/7/84 to MR Clear of Te Kowhai.
c/n 0008 - ZK-KEV - registered 5/7/84 to KA Ryan of Hamilton.
c/n 0009 - ZK-ZAK - registered 5/7/84 to GC Southgate of Hamilton.
c/n 0010 - ZK-LII - registered 5/7/84 to MR Smith of Hamilton.
c/n 0011 - ZK-KGG - registered 6/11/84 to JS Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai.
c/n 0012 - ZK-JEP - registered 6/11/84 to JS Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai.
c/n 0013 - ZK-TIL - registered 29/11/84 to EH Webber of Hamilton.
c/n MAANZ 293 - ZK-FKE - registered 26/10/84 to C Williams of Hora Hora.
c/n MAANZ 294 - ZK-ROW - registered 26/10/84 to RO Williams of Hora Hora.


1 comment:

  1. I mathew timu of hastings own b10/zk_zii i purchased it in 2009 from stewart Brookings of wairoa

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