Photograph:
Anderson EA-1 Kingfisher ZK-DJH (c/n AACA/165) in New Zealand (Unknown)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Two seat light amateur-built amphibian
Power Plant:
One 86 kw (115 hp) Lycoming O-235-CI four-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 11 m (36 ft 1 in)
- Length: 7.16 m (23 ft 6 in)
- Height: 2.44 m (8 ft)
- Wing area: 17.18 m² (185 sq ft)
- Max cruising speed: 136 km/h (85 mph)
- Stalling speed: 68 km/h (42 mph)
- Max rate of climb at sea level: 180 m/min (600 ft/min)
- Service ceiling: 3,050 m (10,000 ft)
- Stalling speed: 73 km/h (45 mph)
- Range with max fuel: 322 km/h (200 miles)
- Empty weight: 495 kg (1,092 lb)
- Loaded weight: 725 kg (1,600 lb)
History:
The EA-1 Kingfisher was designed by Earl Anderson, a Boeing 747 airline captain, in the USA. The fuselage was constructed of wood, covered with plywood and coated with fibreglass. Stabilising floats, made from mahogany wood and plywood with a coating of fibreglass, were attached to the wings, which were usually standard Piper Cub wings purchased “off the shelf”.
The prototype took the designer about nine years to build, and made its first flight on 24 April 1969. At this time the aircraft was powered by a 75 kw (100 hp) Continental O-200 engine, but flight experience showed it was a little underpowered so the 86 kw (115 hp) Lycoming was fitted driving a Sensenich propeller. The Kingfisher was designed originally for power plants up to 104 kw (140 hp) but it was found that the 86 kw (115 hp) unit was the most suitable. By January 1975 the prototype had flown 600 hours.
Anderson Aircraft Corporation of Maine was formed to market plans for the type and Kingfishers have been built in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Germany and the Panama. In later years the plans for the Kingfisher have been made available by Wings Unlimited of Charlotte, North Carolina, and more than 100 examples have been completed.
One Kingfisher is known to have been completed in this region. This became ZK-DJH (c/n AACA/165), this aircraft being built by Mac Bettjemen of Te Kuiti, NZ and Being first registered on 15 June 1979. It used the wings from a Piper Cub (ZK-CUB) which had been damaged in a storm at Te Kaio Bay in January 1979. However, the Kingfisher was damaged when it landed at Lake Te Anau with the wheels down on 13 January 1996 and the aircraft was removed from the NZ register on 18 September 1997. It was advertised for sale in 2004 and obtained by Mr D R Baker of Greymouth. It was rebuilt and restored to the register as ZK-DJH on 2 April 2015.
One example has been noted in photographs operating in Australia using a registration VH-TBN but no record is available of this aircraft actually being registered with CASA and nothing further is known about it.