A Jabiru Twin Engine Airplane Is Being Built In South Africa And We Found The Story Behind It.

When we at ANN saw the stories of a twin-engine Jabiru airplane being built in South Africa, we knew there had to be an interesting story behind this unique airplane. We checked with Jabiru Australia to get the details, and here’s what we found out.

Len and Les Alford of Jabiru Aircraft Southern Africa are the South African dealers for Jabiru. They approached Jabiru a year and a half ago suggesting there was a market for a twin engine Jabiru in Africa. They explained that parts of Africa are best flown over at a great heights, and the prevalence of wild animals and AK47s tends to make flyers nervous about outfield landings.  The conclusion…two engines would be nice.

The project was always intended to be a joint development and aimed at the South African market.  Jabiru had conjured the concept of a twin for some time but could not face up to the complexity generated by hanging the engines off the wings. This would have meant going back to basics on wing structure and all the difficulties of fire-proofing the wings, etc. Another physical difficulty was the engine pods completely obstructed the entry and exit points to the cabin. These considerations gave birth to the idea of mounting the engines on a short canard mounted on the firewall.

Some quick calculations on the weight and balance weren’t too frightening and Jabiru was able to get the propellers quite close together to reduce the amount of asymmetric thrust on one engine. The issue of opening the doors against the engine pods was resolved and the design evolved from there.

Jabiru’s John Farmer got to work making a streamlined nose for a J430 airplane and the two engine pods. Jabiru’s engineer, Tom Ferguson, was given the task of testing the supporting structure for the engines. As usual, most of the structure was built in composite with aluminum connections to the engines. The firewall structure of the J430 is unchanged and the nose wheel remains in its normal position. This is a relatively simple bolt-on modification.

When the structure was finished and the molds were complete, the project was shipped to South Africa where the airplane was completed into a flying prototype.

This project has been a wonderful demonstration of cooperation between the two companies. Jabiru Australia has left Jabiru Aircraft Southern Africa the task of bringing the prototype to production, and to negotiate with the South African CAA on its terms of release to the public.

Jabiru is considering releasing the aircraft as a kit for Australian and U.S. builders, and in other countries that accept the experimental category. It’s also possible that it could be released as a conversion to existing experimental J430s in Australia.

(Images provided by Jabiru)

FMI: www.jabiru.net.au