A modest proposal:

With production of new Maule airplanes not keeping pace with the attrition rate...
could it be time for the factory to manufacture (or sub-contract or license manufacture) and sell Maules in kits which meet the FAA's m 51% rule?

Owners of certified Maules should benefit from increased activity at the factory and improved parts availability. Amateur Maule-builders worldwide would know that they were making a tried and tested airplane type with an excellent safety record.

I'd build one once I wear out the one I've got and get the RV8 project flying so thre would be room to work on it.

But you know to have a Maule with out that bothersome FAA certification
B.S. If Maule takes this hint I might have to pick up the pace since it doesn't seem that we'll live long enough to see the " primary non commercial " category come to be.

Maule has built a little over 2600 aircraft since 1962. Van's aircraft has sold untold number of kits with almost 10,000 actually flying. I think this is an EXCELLENT idea! It wouldn't be too far from the concept of ELSA (EAB) and SLSA (Factory built) categories. And parts availability would have to ramp up to meet the demand, the company would grow and prosper.

I plead this case to Brent a few months back. I believe Maule airplanes are an excellent platform to offer in a kit form. I suggested he limit it to two, but no more than three fuse/wing/engine combinations to keep it simple. I'd be in for another M-7-235 or 260. In fact, I'd sign up to be the test bed for him.

I think it could be a great opportunity to compete with the cub kits out there as a lot of builders are looking for more payload.

If Maule did, it would not bode well for AviPro and the Bearhawk kits. Since all the tooling has been amortized a long time ago, the increase in cost for production would be personnel, which would be more expensive than what Avipro likely incurs in Mexico. Maule has facility space to grow into the increased production. If all the hard parts of this equation have been satisfied, the decision sounds easy...

That's been in the back of my mind since this post. I'm a Bearhawk supporter (and scratch builder, not kit), and I appreciate the niche it fills. It would certainly be competition for AviPro.

I'm re-building my Maule as experimental because in Europe a certified airplane is just to expensive to afford. If the kit version would have existed I'd have bought it in a second!

Hey Duane, has this idea been considered by Maule before and if so, what was the outcome?

It would certainly be interesting to see how an M-9 kit would price out against a Bearhawk 4-place, and the M4-180V-S2 against the Patrol 2-place. Maybe the M-7-B is the better comparison, actually.