Christmas Eve saw Van’s email out a year-end update that touched on a number of topics, from its business improvements to the formation of a new avionics department.
In the overview, Van’s said, “As we approach the end of 2024, we reflect on a year marked by challenges, growth, and meaningful progress at Van’s Aircraft. Thanks to hard work, dedication, and the unwavering support of our community, we’ve made significant strides—improving kit lead times, advancing the RV-15 project, and implementing key operational enhancements.”
Among those highlights: Van’s delivered 1200 kit segments in 2024. Note that these are individual kits and not whole airplanes. It fulfilled nearly 12,000 parts orders and revised its packaging and crating process to reduce shipping costs to customers by as much as $250. It also filled out its customer service team, which helped reduce its “unresolved customer inquiries” from 3500 to 385 and cut call wait times nearly in half. Builders impacted by Van’s laser-cut-parts snafu should be relieved to know that all known requests for replacement parts have been fulfilled.
Other operational improvements have reduced backorders by 50% and reduced lead times for quickbuild components from 18 to 12 months. Van’s also says that empennage-kit lead times for all RV kits in production is now just two weeks.
As we’ve previously reported, development of the RV-15 reached a few milestones in 2024. The stabilator has been replaced with a conventional elevator/horizontal stabilizer combination and the company was testing this configuration on a lengthened tailcone as well as on the original empennage. Van’s says this “has proven to provide more intuitive handling for pilots of varying skill levels. Testing of the final tail has demonstrated excellent flight stability and ground performance throughout the entire cg range. The aircraft is now harmonized in pitch and roll to deliver the signature ‘RV Feel,’ with control forces tailored to its backcountry mission.”
Van’s continues design work on the wing and fuselage. A new fuselage is still planned and the company will build a wing that carries fuel; the current wing, meant only for proof-of-concept testing, does not. It’s highly likely the company will have a “more final” version of the RV-15 to show this summer at AirVenture. Of course, a big part of Van’s recovery from Chapter 11 bankruptcy depends on both the success of the RV-15 and the company’s ability to begin shipping finalized kits for it as soon as possible.
Finally, Van’s is creating its own avionics department. “This strategic expansion will enable us to offer integrated avionics and wiring harness solutions for the RV-15, and possibly future MOSAIC aircraft,” the company says. “We expect that many Van’s customers will continue to have custom wiring harnesses and panels built by their favorite third-party panel supplier. However, our goal in establishing this new department is to provide future RV-15 builders with high-quality wiring harnesses and instrument panels that dramatically reduce the build time and remove anxiety and uncertainty in this portion of their project.” While this is new for Van’s, it’s not new in the industry, with several kit companies offering such services.
In its year-end wrapup, Van’s pointed out that improvements on the business side—process control, implementing better inventory and production-control systems, filling out its quality-management capabilities—have been running in the background along with the more visible items such as reduced lead times and laser-cut parts fulfillment.
