The Bearhawk is a home-built aircraft in the Maule airplane tradition, being four-seat STOL with a wide variety of engine choices. Its fuselage is steel tube construction with semi-monocoque aluminum wings. Engines from 150 to 260 horsepower can be chosen, and engine power will dictate STOL performance, just as it does in the Maule series of aircraft. A quick-build kit is offered for the Bearhawk, or the Bearhawk can be plans built only. The builder would have to be very patient and skilled to build a Bearhawk from plans only and 2,000-3,000 hours of building time would likely be a minimum. The quick-build kit would lower this figure considerably, bringing build times in line with other home-built designs.
The Bearhawk has not gained as strong a following as other aircraft, but it is a worthy bush plane in its own right. Quick build kit price is $25,500 with several different kit option kits available for various prices from AviPro. Plane specifications are found on the
Bearhawk Aircraft Specifications page.
Here are a few short video demonstrations of the Bearhawk's STOL capabilities.
There is also a building reference CD avaiable for $30 from a retired air force guy named Russ Erb who built his own Bearhawk. The CD looks like a great bargain with construction photos, reference materials, links, some humor and other items a builder could use. I don't know Russ Erb but he can probably be found through the Bearhawk discussion group at Yahoo which looks like a good place to have a virtual meeting with other Bearhawkers.
ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:BlinkDel.icio.usDigg FurlGoogleSimpySpurlTechnoratiY! MyWeb