Sign in

Private company

Jabiru

Australian aircraft manufacturer

Jabiru Aircraft Pty Ltd is an Australian aircraft manufacturer that produces a range of kit- and ready-built civil light aircraft in Bundaberg, Queensland. The company also designs and manufactures a range of light aircraft engines. Types past and present include microlights (Ultralight or ULM), including the Calypso, two-seat trainers and recreational aircraft and four-seat aircraft.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1988Founded1

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

JabiruJ450C-GAHU02
Photo: Ahunt at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

Jabiru Aircraft Pty Ltd is an Australian aircraft manufacturer that produces a range of kit- and ready-built civil light aircraft in Bundaberg, Queensland. The company also designs and manufactures a range of light aircraft engines. Types past and present include microlights (Ultralight or ULM), including the Calypso, two-seat trainers and recreational aircraft (J120/J160/ J170/J230) and four-seat aircraft (J400/J430/J450).2

The story

The company was formed in 1988 by Rodney Stiff and Phil Ainsworth to manufacture affordable light aircraft in kit and certified forms.

In October 1991, the first aircraft (Jabiru LSA 55/2k), was certified by the Australian Civil Aviation Authority.

Due to the original engine manufacturer, Italian American Motor Engineering ceasing production of the KFM 112M aero engines, the company started development of its own engines, and by 1995 the Jabiru 2200, a horizontally opposed four-cylinder air-cooled aviation engine, was available for delivery. Since then the six-cylinder Jabiru 3300 and eight-cylinder Jabiru 5100 have been added to the range.

Also in 1995, it was decided to offer the aircraft range as amateur-build or experimental self-build kits.

The microlight version of the Jabiru two-seater aircraft, the Jabiru UL, holds two world speed records for three-axis microlight aircraft. These were set over 50- and 100-kilometre predefined courses and certified by the FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale).

From Wikipedia’s article on Jabiru Aircraft, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

  • light aircraft

Listed on Wikidata.1

Aircraft

Early Models

LSA - configured to meet ultralight regulations

ST3 - configured to meet general aviation regulations

UL-D - configured to meet UK Microlight regulations

Current Models

J120 - 2 seater with 80 hp engine

Read the full text

J160 - 2 seater with 80 hp engine

J170 - 2 seater with 80 hp engine

J230 - 2 seater with 120 hp engine

J432 - 2 seater with twin offset 80 hp engines

Early Models

SP - Light aircraft version

SP-T - Taildragger version of SP

UL - export version to meet European microlight regulations (Calypso)

UL-T - taildragger version of UL

SK - two-seat aircraft (group A version)

J200 - two-seat aircraft

J400 - four-seat aircraft

J450 - four-seat aircraft with STOL wing

Current Models

J430 - four-seat aircraft with winglets for best compromise between STOL performance and speed

Early Models

Jabiru 1600; 60 hp (45 kW) four-cylinder horizontally opposed engine

Jabiru 5100; 180 hp (134 kW) eight-cylinder horizontally opposed engine

Current Models

Jabiru 2200; 80 hp (60 kW) or four-cylinder horizontally opposed engine

Jabiru 3300; 120 hp (89 kW) six-cylinder horizontally opposed engine

In November 2014, the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) required passengers to sign an acknowledgement of risk before flying, and restricted IFR-equipped aircraft to day VFR flight within gliding distance of a safe place to land. In the following two years, CASA inspectors witnessed the tear-downs of failed Jabiru engines and also high-time engines that had not failed. In 2016, this resulted in exemptions to these restrictions for all aircraft that complied with the manufacturer's engine maintenance manuals, service letters, bulletins, flight operation manuals and that had no unapproved modifications.

Both the manufacturer and Recreational Aviation Australia (RA-Aus) opposed the restrictions as unnecessary and unwarranted. RA-Aus reported that it was supplied with only a fraction of CASA's source data – just a day before submissions closed – and that CASA seemed to have excluded all engine reliability data post-"early 2014".

From Wikipedia’s article on Jabiru Aircraft, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1988Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4