I have the privilege, joy, and responsibility of owning and flying a Grumman Tiger originally manufactured in 1977 by Grumman American. But my Tiger–just like every piston aircraft manufactured by American Aviation, Grumman American, Gulfstream American, American General, and Tiger Aircraft–is an orphan.
These companies are no longer in existence, either liquidated or morphed into other companies no longer in the piston aircraft business. So today my Tiger is an orphan, relying on the ongoing support of the American Yankee Association, and companies like Fletchair for continued service expertise and parts availability. But that is about to change.
Enter True Flight Aerospace. This new company, owned and led by Kevin Lancaster, a prior owner of two Tigers, acquired the assets (parts, tooling, etc), and type certificate for the Tiger and the other 2-place and 4-place piston singles in this line from now-defunct Tiger Aircraft.
So far, Kevin seems to be starting strong, with an aggressive schedule to get his plant in Valdosta, Georgia up and running, and producing AG5B Tigers by the middle of 2008. Although Kevin does not have aircraft manufacturing experience, his management team includes guys with many years experience manufacturing our bonded aluminum honeycomb aircraft. And Kevin’s experience as a past owner gives him the first-hand knowledge of how the Grumman line (although manufactured by a succession of companies, most people just use the tag “Grumman” when referring to these planes) are class leaders in performance. No other fixed gear, fixed-pitch prop aircraft can match the combination of speed, maneuverability, fuel economy, and real-world hauling capability of our Grumman birds. With avgas prices topping five dollars a gallon in the US, class-leading efficiency and fuel economy becomes a competitive advantage.
The most impressive thing from my perspective is Kevin’s earnest efforts to reach out to the existing Grumman owner and pilot community for support and suggestions for how True Flight can improve on past manufacturers. Equally impressive (because I’m the owner of a 30-year-old plane) is Kevin’s commitment to embrace and support the existing fleet. This is a big change from Tiger Aircraft, who virtually ignored the existing fleet and owners. It’s still early and there are many hurtles ahead for True Flight as they re-start production of aircraft and parts, but the first steps look like they are in the right direction. I, for one, am really rooting for Kevin and his company. I hope they have found the elusive formula of financing, product knowledge, manufacturing efficiency, marketing acumen, competitive pricing, and leveraging the legacy fleet, to succeed.
This is great information. I am definitely going to bookmark this page. Keep it coming.
Hi – I’m an owner too of the Grumman Tiger – mine was built in the mid 1980′s and still going strong. It’s been hung up for a few years while I attended to other domestic chores like building a house, getting married and getting cancer treatment – glad to say I’ve got that almost beat and I’m starting to think about flying again !
I have a question please – can anyone tell me if the Tiger was ever licenced to be built in Japan – or have the Japanese “by coincidence” happened to design and build a very similar model ?
Thanks MalcolmL
Hi Malcolm. Mid-80s, then you have one of the newer ones. Never licensed to be built outside of the US as far as I know, although there was one Taiwan company that owned the company briefly before going under in the 1990s. Glad you got that “C” thing beat, kick it’s ass! Get back in the pilot seat when you can. Best regards.