Twenty-five years after the Kitfox took over homebuilders’ hearts, it remains a favorite.

By Amy Laboda

There is no question that the Kitfox is among the seminal homebuilts of our era. Every journalist working a quarter century ago saw the avalanche of popularity kicked off by the retro two-seater, but for some the association is far more personal. In 1986 I was a fledgling flight instructor, and my first published works were turning up in some California-based publications dedicated to general aviation aircraft. It was fun. I’d write in the morning, turn up to fly at around 11 a.m., and then lock up the flight school for its owner after I’d landed and debriefed my last student, at about 9 p.m.

In the course of my assignments I had the opportunity to meet Kitfox designer Dan Denney. He and Dean Wilson originally came up with the idea for a very light, two-place, side-by-side bush plane in the early 1980s. The Kitfox 1 was all that, weighing between…

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