A Skystar/Kitfox insider has reported that Skystar Aircraft filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (Case: 05-05344) late last week. Over 200 creditors are listed in the bankruptcy petition.

The well-known SportPlane kit aircraft company, one of the longest lived of the genre, has fallen on hard times over the last decade. Factors involved in the aforementioned hard times include an increasingly competitive market, Sport Pilot rule delays and confusion, some less-than-optimal business decisions, one unfortunate accident in which an out-of-control Cessna destroyed a fair part of the manufacturing facility, and the market becoming saturated with hundreds of complete and incomplete Kitfoxes (and similar birds such as the Avid Flyer from which the original Kitfox was derived), leaving the parent company (literally) competing against themselves as many of these kits found themselves for sale.

Skystar, first started as a competitive enterprise to (then) superstar Avid Aircraft, was the brainchild of Dan Denney, who pushed an aggressive marketing campaign to make Skystar an early leader in the field. A series of new owners was never able to equal the early success of Denney's operation, while an increasingly competitive market took it's toll on what was (mostly) a superior product and manufacturing outlet.

There is little known about the company's prospects, for the moment. Former Skystar staffer John McBean reports that, "I was asked to pass on a message and there is just no easy way to say it. Unfortunately, SkyStar is officially in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.  Although the phones are still being answered with voice mail there is no one there to get the messages and the web is not being monitored. This is a Chapter 7 and was filed on Friday 10-14-05. People involved should get a letter from the courts."

ANN will have more information on this story as it becomes available.

FMI: www.skystar.com