Orion Cub – A South African Success Story

The Orion Cub, in its short, two-year lifespan, has attracted enormous attention in international aviation circles and the orders are starting to pile up.

It’s a hot afternoon in late November 2022 at the Brits Airfield on the final day of competition for honours in the World Rally Flying Championships. Out of the haze comes the last team of the day, South Africa’s Nigel Hopkins and Mary de Klerk, performing a pin-point landing in an aeroplane distinctly different from the field dominated by Cessnas.

It’s a high wing, tandem seat taildragger called an Orion Cub which has taken Nigel and Mary to the verge of victory on the international stage barely three months after taking its maiden flight at Jack Taylor Airfield in Krugersdorp. The aircraft is designed and built by Kevin Hopper and his team at Orion Aircraft and pays homage to the Piper J3 Cub so loved by aviators.

This aircraft, ZU-IVS, is the prototype with a second, ZU-COB, recently completed as a build assist ready to be delivered to its new owner. “You can’t build them one at a time, you have to build them in batches otherwise it’s not viable at all,” says Kevin.

A logistical maze

But logistics remain a challenge as the team gears up the workshop to facilitate a higher number of aircraft being built alongside their owners.

Kevin tells me that every part of the aeroplane has got a different lead time and 90% of it is imported from the US, Germany and Sweden, among countries, making logistics in keeping a store of components a challenge. They’re making strides to handle bigger quantities and are busy with another two airframes, then they’ll progress to three at a time as they build up the production store.

Time and money

It’s taken thousands of hours developing the fundamentals like drawings for assembly, manufacture and the customer, which are all different and have to be kept on proper record. There’s a project manager and co-ordinator on board to ensure smooth operations for the build of the planes. “It takes a lot of time to go from nothing to a structured build assist programme,” Kevin tells me.

There are a total of 12 sales at the time of writing with an eight-month lead time but capacity is not there to build 12 simultaneously. ZU-IVS has the 100hp normally aspirated engine, ZU-COB and the third airframe the 135hp turbocharged engine, while the fourth airframe is going to Australia and will have the 100hp normally aspirated engine. “It’s easier to export a stock standard aeroplane to Australia without the turbo because of certification on their side,” says Kevin.

At the moment Australia looks like a good market and they have an agent who is excited about the aeroplane and has eight people who are interested in the Orion, one of whom he flew over to the facility at Krugersdorp.

In the beginning

The seeds of the Orion Cub were sown in 2007 when Kevin built the Teddy – a wooden Cub that was a labour of love and not feasible as a build assist project. His ideal was to build a fabric covered aeroplane and the Orion ended up a combination of a fabric fuselage with aluminium wings.

Through research conducted with pilots in the US and Canada who operate these aircraft on dirt strips, if a stone kicks up and goes through the fabric it can patched with duct tape with no loss of performance. The wing, however, needs to maintain its integrity so you can’t risk a tear in the fabric and the loss of aerodynamics.

A lot of work went into the wing design. “I wanted an aeroplane that could fly incredibly slowly and we’ve managed to do that because this wing will stall at about 28mph. Put the flap down and you can fly it quite comfortably at about 30mph with power on and you will still have full aileron response. But it surprised us in that it also gives you a reasonable amount of speed. On a 135hp engine it should be able to cruise all day at 110 knots,” says Kevin.

Time to fly

On 28 August 2022 at 7am on a perfect day, Dale de Klerk, a World Rally Flying Champion, with Nigel Hopkins took off and flew for 45 minutes before bringing the plane home. “The brief was to taxi up, get the tail up and do a few more taxis until he was comfortable with the aeroplane. He did his first taxi and said he had nothing more to learn and took off on the second run,” says Kevin.

On his return, Kevin asked him what to change about the aircraft. “Absolutely nothing, don’t change a thing,” he said and the design remains exactly the same.

Accolades

Apart from the third-place finish at the World Rally Flying Champs, the Orion Cub has won the spot landing competitions at Brits, Stellenbosch and Middelburg with Dale at the stick. Kevin says Dale considers the Orion as one of the best aircraft he’s flown and he’s flown hundreds of different types.

I sat down with the Polish father-and-son winning team of Krzysztof and Kamil Wieczorek at the World Rally Flying Champs in 2022. Although they’d only got a good look at the aircraft, they raved about the Orion Cub, commending its observation characteristics and the fact it’s able to fly at slow speeds allowing more time to orientate to the terrain.

With all the hours and development of the build process, not to mention the financial investment, Kevin says: “If I knew at beginning what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have started this project.” And just as well he stuck with it or South African aviation would have been all the poorer.

What you get in an Orion Cub

Engine options: Rotax 100hp-160hp. Lycoming/Titan 115hp-200hp. UL power 118hp-200hp.

Avionics options: Dynon HDX EFIS System. Garmin G3X EFIS System. Kanardia Nesis EFIS System and MGL Avionics EFIS system.

Optional extras: Carbon fibre package. Flush riveted wing surfaces. 27” bush wheels with wide tail wheel and rear seat brakes. LED landing, nav and strobe lights.

Standard features of the Orion Cub

– Welded 4130 chromoly steel airframe

– Covered and painted to high aviation standards

– Steerable tailwheel with a shock absorber

– Dual control sticks and rudder pedals

– Electric pitch trim

– Modern instrument panel layout

– Large baggage area with a door for easy access

– Lightweight and strong carbon fibre seats

– 4130 steel bush landing gear with shocks

– Large 21” tyres with a dual piston hydraulic brakes

– Extruded aluminium I beam wing spars

– CNC cut and bent 6061-T6 aluminium wings

– Streamlined aluminium lift struts

– 126 l fuel capacity in wing tanks

– Flush riveted wing surfaces

– Large slotted flaps for STOL performance

– Dual control sticks, rudders and throttle

– Signature Orion cub machined rudder pedals

– Merchandise kit

– First five hours of conversion training included

– 2 nights backcountry trip to Zuikerkop lodge

Contact details:

info@orioncub.com

www.orioncub.com