A Note From The New Editor

The primary focus of a new editor at a magazine like Kitplanes is where the work happens—not in an office, but in a garage, backyard shop, a hangar, a space cleared to make room for a bench for a set of plans and tools. Kitplanes has always been written for that space and for the person who inhabits it: the builder, head down over the bench, shaping an idea into airworthy reality one rivet at a time. That audience and that mission remain the point of the compass.

As I approach the role of lead editor at Kitplanes, I think back to the beginning of its coverage of kit- and homebuilt aircraft more than forty years ago. As editor of a competing monthly magazine, I watched as aviation evolved from its experimental, homebuilt traditions into airplanes that could be built from a kit, ultralights, and even jets. It was a great time to be alive and flying. Today we live in similar times and thus embark upon a similar path.

Kitplanes set out in 1984 to serve a growing community of designers, builders, and pilots, and it did so without pretense, aiming its stories and how‑to pieces at the people who were actually doing the work. It was launched alongside a sister flying publication, Plane & Pilot, but from the start, this magazine was different by design—dedicated to homebuilt airplanes as a distinct world with its own culture, economies, and expectations. Its motto, “For Designers, Builders and Pilots of Experimental Aircraft” lives on, four decades later. The founding premise still holds. The publication has changed formats and adopted new tools, but it has not changed its subject: builders, kits, plans, and the experiments—large and small—that add up to personal flight. That will not change on this watch.

Who This Magazine Is For

The Kitplanes core reader is not looking for the next seven‑figure status symbol for a ramp in the sun. Our reader is looking at a set of drawings and an assembly of airplane parts and asking what’s possible if the next thousand evenings are spent doing honest work. That reader—high school shop teacher or retired aeronautical engineer, first‑time kit builder or third‑time scratch‑builder—will continue to find the emphasis here. The coverage will be aimed at the person who wants to make an airplane, test it intelligently, maintain it, and fly it, because the thing built is the most direct connection to the joy of flight. It’s about craft, self‑reliance, and the satisfaction of a well‑executed plan.

That is why, in these pages, the builder’s voice will keep leading. The shop tricks that save an afternoon; the jig that trues a fuselage; the notes from Phase I that turn a test plan into a safe first flight—this practical detail is the marrow of Kitplanes. No one benefits if the essential steps are glossed over. A new editor can set a tone, but the work will keep speaking for itself.

What We’ll Cover Next

Staying close to the bench does not mean turning away from the new. The homebuilt community has always been where real advances show up first, not because of money but all about ingenuity. This includes propulsion concepts—from proven piston power to electric assists and serial‑hybrid schemes, from hydrogen fuel‑cell demonstrators to compact turbines and jets suited to the experimental category. The task here is not to cheerlead but to report cleanly: what works, what is promised, what the timelines and tradeoffs really look like when the airplane must get up and go. Readers can expect clear explanations, careful data, and testing framed by the realities of amateur‑built aircraft.

Avionics will continue to evolve quickly, and the kit world has benefited from affordable glass, robust autopilots, and integrated engine monitoring once reserved for certified panels. The goal is to keep that coverage grounded in installation practice, configuration discipline, and in‑flight reliability—the difference between a feature set and a system that genuinely reduces workload in weather and busy airspace. Materials coverage will likewise follow the practical arc: metal, wood, and fabric are still alive and well, and composite methods are now normal shop practice. What matters is the detail that helps a builder avoid a mistake, adopt a better technique, or select a path that suits budget, skill, and mission.

The News That Matters

The magazine will seek out developments that truly affect builders: changes to the rules that govern amateur‑built certification and operation, local and national economics that drive kit pricing and lead times, supply chain realities that alter build schedules, and insurance and training issues that determine how an aircraft can be flown when it’s done. The promise is straightforward: report what’s changing, explain what it means, and keep the signal‑to‑noise ratio high. When a new design appears, the intent is not to reprint a brochure but to visit the shop, ask the right questions, and let builders judge on the merits with clear, unvarnished information.

History, Because It Teaches

A magazine that debuted in 1984 has seen a long parade of designs come to life, mature, and—in some cases—set the standard for how a homebuilt airplane flies. The early RVs, the wave of sport and utility kits that followed, and the modern generation of quickbuilds and matched‑hole assemblies all carry lessons about the balance between ambition and finish, speed and handling, cost and time. Telling those stories is nostalgic, but also a way of giving today’s builders context for their choices. The reader deserves to know what endured and why, and what didn’t and why not.

Kitplanes has also kept directories and buyer’s guides current because, for builders, the decision tree is complex, and the stakes are tangible. Those resources will remain part of the toolkit, updated and sharpened to reflect what’s obtainable and supportable today. The editorial features will continue to walk the line between inspiration and instruction—enough story to remind us why this is worth doing, enough detail to make doing it safer, cheaper, and better.

The Core Mission, Unchanged

At its heart, this magazine exists to help the builder succeed—choosing a design that fits mission and means, building it to a standard that honors the design, flight‑testing it with care, and flying it well. The values follow from the work: honesty about tradeoffs, respect for craftsmanship, and patience for the thousand small steps between ordering a kit and logging a first cross‑country. Coverage of new powerplants, greener fuels, or ever‑clever panels will slot into that mission, not displace it. If a technology can be adopted by a careful amateur in a normal shop and maintained sensibly over time, it belongs in these pages; if it can’t, it belongs in the category of “watch with interest” until it proves itself.

A Word About Tone

Expect the prose here to be plain, and the claims to be checkable. The subject is too important, and the readers too experienced, for hype. When enthusiasm shows up, it will be earned by data or by the simple beauty of a well‑built airplane airborne on a clear morning. The job is not to be dour; it’s to be useful. The signal moments—first flights, first trips with a family, first landings on the strip a builder carved behind the barn—need no extra varnish to carry their weight.

An Invitation

Editors don’t build magazines alone. Kitplanes has lasted because the people who read it also write it, one build log, one careful letter, one lesson learned the hard way at a time. That tradition will continue. If a fixture solved a problem in the shop, send it along. If a new kit impressed—or disappointed—say why. If a regulatory change is being misunderstood, help set it right. The best work here has always come from the same place the airplanes come from: the community willing to share what it knows.

Finally, gratitude. To the original mavericks who saw that a magazine devoted to homebuilt aircraft could stand on its own, and to the editors, writers, photographers, and builders who carried it through the decades—thank you. It’s an honor to join that line. The work ahead is clear: keep faith with the people this magazine was made for, tell the truth about what’s new, and never lose sight of why a person in a garage decides to make an airplane in the first place. That reason is simple, and it’s the same as it was 42 years ago: the dream of flight made personal, practical, and real by a builder’s own hands.