For pilots who love backcountry flying, the name CubCrafters is like the name Bugatti for racecar aficionados. The Yakima, Washington-based light aircraft manufacturer has been cranking out mods and modern-day two-seat taildraggers for nearly four decades.
CubCrafters has seen continuous growth since the company first introduced the highly successful Light Sport Carbon Cub in 2009, said Brad Damm, CubCrafter’s director of sales. In 2016 the company certified the XCub and several variants of the Carbon Cub have been introduced in the past few years. These recently introduced models have seen such great demand that CubCrafters is increasing production.
In 2017, CubCrafters took around 100 orders for various models, according to Damm. The number of deliveries reported by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association was down slightly in 2017, but GAMA only reports certified aircraft deliveries. Damm said the sales have been growing continuously for the past few years.
The manufacturing space was increased by 50 percent during the process of certifying the XCub in anticipation of a bigger demand. Three new hangars were built during that time at McAllister Field in Yakima (YKM). The production rate was increased toward the end of 2017 and now it will continue to grow at least through 2019 to satisfy customer demand.
CubCrafters took orders for 40 airplanes just in the fourth quarter of 2017, a boom in sales that the company attributes to the introduction of the Carbon Cub FX-3 and the Garmin G3X option for the XCub.
