Denney Kitfox
The Denney Kitfox is a series of small personal kit aircraft with folding wings that was originally designed and manufactured by Dan Denney and his company Denney Aerocraft of Boise, Idaho.
The Kitfox is unique in that it was one of the first designs to make popular a quickly folding wing that greatly eased transportation and storage. The aircraft is amateur-built and not type certified and was originally designed to accommodate a Rotax engine.
The large appeal of the aircraft was in large part due to the fact it could be built by any handyman in a two car garage and then towed to the airport with the wings folded. The design allowed for easy conversion to floats or skis. Over 4500 kits have been delivered in 42 different countries.
Development
When it was first flown in November 1984 from the Denney Aerocraft factory in Boise, Idaho, the first Kitfox was a two-seat short takeoff and landing STOL aircraft capable of flying from unimproved strips. The Model 1 Kitfox features folding wings and was intended to be towed home from the airport and stored in a garage. Originally the design was intended to use a new radial engine in development at the time and the early Kitfoxes had round cowls with bumps to accommodate the radial heads. The engine did not work out and the design moved to using Rotax two-stroke engines instead, but the popular style radial cowling was retained on many models. In 1984 a total of six Model 1 Kitfoxes were delivered and then the model range was expanded to include the improved Models 2, 3, 4, and Classic 4.
