Overview
Aviat Aircraft is a small American manufacturer based in Afton, Wyoming, known for two very different rugged airplanes: the Husky, a certificated backcountry taildragger, and the Pitts aerobatic biplanes, for which Aviat holds the type certificates. It is a focused, low-volume builder rather than a broad-line manufacturer, and both of its current products are traditional fabric-and-steel-tube designs built for hard use.
Heritage
The company’s roots run through Afton’s long aviation history and, more directly, through Frank Christensen’s Christen Industries, which brought together the Pitts aerobatic line and, in the mid-1980s, developed the Husky as a clean-sheet modern bush plane. The Aviat name dates to 1991, when the firm was renamed from Christen Industries; Stuart Horn bought the company in 1995 and incorporated it under its present name, Aviat Aircraft Inc. Along the way the firm rebuilt Cessna 150s and 152s under its own name and, in 1999, acquired the rights to the Globe Swift – a project delayed by litigation and never returned to production. Those are footnotes; the Husky and the Pitts are the enduring lines.
Design Signature
Both Aviat airplanes share a construction philosophy that has fallen out of fashion elsewhere: welded steel-tube structure under fabric, simple to inspect and repair, and stressed for punishment. The Husky applies it to short-field utility – big flaps, a constant-speed propeller, and easy conversion to floats, skis, or tundra tires. The Pitts applies it to aerobatics – a compact symmetrical-wing biplane built to be flown hard and often. Different missions, the same rugged, field-serviceable bones.
For Owners
Aviat is a direct, factory-support relationship: a small company in Afton that still builds, stocks parts for, and supports its airplanes. Huskies are reported to hold their value well in a thin, steady used market, and the Pitts remains one of a small number of continuously supported certified aerobatic types. Buyers get a modern, supported airframe rather than the lowest possible acquisition cost – the trade the whole Aviat line asks you to make.
