Kitfox Super Sport vs Highlander

I enjoyed reading the thread comparing the Super Sport to the Rans, but quite honestly I have been challenged by outsiders to compare the Super Sport to the Highlander. One guy reported that the Highlander had much stronger attachment of the front gear to the longerons in the Highlander and when I look at photos, I have to say it does have a stronger look. I guess his point was that the stronger the gear the better off in rougher landings over rocks, etc.

Does anyone have any first hand knowledge on the differences between these 2 aircraft? I'd sure be interested, as they both look like quality to me.

I have experience in Highlanders as well as Kitfoxes. Two very good friends own Highlanders and I not only have flown my Kitfox with them to different places, but also have flown one of the Highlanders to Florida from Wisconsin.

The biggest difference between the Kitfox and the Highlander is that the Highlander lends itself more to boonie bashing STOL stuff, and not so much as a cross country cruiser.

The Kitfox tends to offer a bit more versatility in my opinion, being a very decent boonie basher when you want that, but also being an efficient cross country cruiser when you need to do that.

The highly undercambered airfoil the Highlander uses provides gobs of lift, but is pretty draggy. The Kitfox having a larger wing, and a pretty advanced airfoil design has almost as much lift, but has a definite speed advantage due to the airfoil design itself having less drag. But if you really want to go pound around in the bush, I'd give the Highlander the edge with that very high lift wing.

Strengthwise I actually think the Kitfox is stronger. In fact, once again the gross weights of the Kitfox prove that, allowing one to go up to 1550 lbs gross. The Highlander wasn't designed for that much weight. So even though the gear looks sturdy and all, I doubt it is really any stronger than the gear on the Kitfox. I agree having more landing gear attach points might make sense, but in reality all the gear does is transfer the landing loads to the longeron in the fuselage, and if you compare both airplanes in the longeron tube area, the nod may go to the Kitfox. And technically it should, as the Kitffox has a higher gross weight, so that would only make sense.

Personally, I really like the Highlander. It is a great airplane. But overall the Kitfox is a much more versatile airplane that can be pretty much whatever you want it to be, bush plane or cruiser. Not one or the other.

Paul S

Well put av8rps,..

Chase

Here is one item that is always worth considering. The Grove landing gear and Grove wheels and brakes are standard on the Kitfox Super Sport.

Video would not upload.. So go to http://www.kitfoxaircraft.com/video%20gallery.htm and click the Gear Drop Test. The first drop was to gross weight.. the second was to failure loads.

Hi John,

That gross weight gear drop test is pretty impressive. I hadn't thought that much about how flexible the grove gear is until seeing that video, so thanks for sharing.

And yes, that pretty much convinces me that the Highlander doesn't have any gear advantage...probably more of a disadvantage.

Paul S