Murphy Aircraft Manufacturing Limited is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 maker of civil utility aircraft

General aviation

General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

 kits. They have designed and produced a series of aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 which allows builders

Homebuilt aircraft

Also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, homebuilt aircraft are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch," from plans, or from assembly kits.-Overview:...

 to choose from a range of sizes - from two-seat sports planes to six-place bush transports

Bush plane

A bush airplane is a general aviation aircraft serving remote, undeveloped areas of a country, usually the African bush, Alaskan and Canadian tundra or the Australian Outback...

.

History

The company was started as the result of an hunting accident. Darryl Murphy was a mechanical engineering technologist who designed and built a rigid wing hang glider in 1978 as a school project at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology

Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology

Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology is a diploma-granting college that has four campuses across Saskatchewan. More than 12,000 students are enrolled in its programs and has approximately 29,000 additional individual registrations....

 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In 1984 Murphy was in a non-aviation accident that left him hospitalized for four months. During his recovery time he decided to design a biplane to fit into the then-new Canadian ultralight category

Ultralight aircraft (Canada)

The Canadian Aviation Regulations define two types of ultralight aircraft: basic ultra-light aeroplane , and advanced ultra-light aeroplane .- Canadian definition of ultra-light :...

. The aircraft was a single-seat model and was intended as a one-off aircraft for his own use, with no production intentions. Murphy named it the Renegade

Murphy Renegade

The Murphy Renegade is a family of Canadian two-seats-in-tandem, single engine, conventional landing gear, biplanes, produced by Murphy Aircraft and intended for amateur construction....

.

After taking the Renegade to a number of fly-in

Fly-in

A fly-in is a pre-arranged gathering of aircraft, pilots and passengers for recreational and social purposes.Fly-ins may be formally or informally organised, members of the public may or may not be invited, the gathering may be at an airport or in a farmer's field.Fly-ins can be aimed at specific...

s and other aviation events, Murphy was encouraged by the positive response it received and by the number of people who asked him to build one for them. In 1985 Murphy quit his job and started Murphy Aviation (later renamed Murphy Aircraft Manufacturing), with his brother Bryan and located the company in Chilliwack, British Columbia

Chilliwack, British Columbia

Chilliwack is a Canadian city in the Province of British Columbia. It is a predominantly agricultural community with an estimated population of 80,000 people. Chilliwack is the second largest city in the Fraser Valley Regional District after Abbotsford. The city is surrounded by mountains and...

.

The original Renegade design was turned into a two-seater by relocating the fuel tank from the centre fuselage

Fuselage

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...

 to the upper wing, installing a second seat and designating it the Renegade II. Initial sales were disappointing as only one kit was sold in the first six months. Sales improved greatly once the aviation press began reviewing the aircraft. By 1986 the company had a backlog of orders, including many from outside North America. Murphy displayed the Renegade at the EAA Convention, Oshkosh and returned to Chilliwack with a substantial order book. During 1989 sales totalled 129 Renegade IIs.

In May 1987 a new version of the basic Renegade design first flew. Named the Renegade Spirit it added a radial engine

Radial engine

The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel...

-style round cowling and a 64 hp Rotax 532 and later the Rotax 582

Rotax 582

|-Specifications :-External links:*...

 engine.

In September 2008, as a result of restructuring due to the early 2000s recession

Early 2000s recession

The early 2000s recession was a decline in economic activity which occurred mainly in developed countries. The recession affected the European Union mostly during 2000 and 2001 and the United States mostly in 2002 and 2003. The UK, Canada and Australia avoided the recession for the most part, while...

, Murphy Aircraft split off their sales functions to a new company, Patterson AeroSales, headed by former Murphy sales representative Bob Patterson. Murphy Aircraft continues to concentrate on designing and manufacturing kit aircraft while Patterson handles "show appearances, advertising materials, promotions and general sales responsibilities". Murphy Aircraft President Darryl Murphy also explained that the company will only manufacture kits in batches once sufficient numbers of orders have been accumulated to justify a production run and that standard aircraft hardware parts, like rivets and bolts would be shipped directly from the suppliers to customers to save costs.

Aircraft

Product list and details (date information from Murphy)

Aircraft	Description	Seats	Launch date	1st flight	1st delivery	Scheduled to cease production
Murphy Elite	propeller aircraft/float plane	2
Murphy Maverick	propeller aircraft/ultralight/LSA	2
Murphy Moose (SR3500)	utility monoplane	2~6
Murphy Rebel Murphy Rebel -Similar aircraft:* Aviat Husky* American Champion Citabria and Scout* Capella XS* Fisher Dakota Hawk* Murphy Elite* Murphy Maverick* Piper Cub...	propeller aircraft/float plane/LSA	2
Murphy Renegade Murphy Renegade The Murphy Renegade is a family of Canadian two-seats-in-tandem, single engine, conventional landing gear, biplanes, produced by Murphy Aircraft and intended for amateur construction....	biplane/LSA	2
Murphy Yukon	propeller aircraft	4
Murphy JDM-8 Murphy JDM-8 |-See also:...	propeller acrobatic/ultralight	1