Grumman American AA-5B Tiger

Grumman American AA-5B Tiger (cn 0979) G-BFZR was built by Gulfstream American Corp in 1979 at their Savannah factory in Georgia. It was delivered to Cabair at Elstree in November 1978 as part of their training fleet. In August 1980 it was sold to Ireland as EI-BJS, but restored to the UK register as G-BFZR in April 2004. It suffered a forced landing shortly after take-off from Oxford airport on 15 October 2004 and was eventually declared an insurance write-off. In March 2008 it was presented to the Ringwood & Fordingbridge Air Training Corps for use as an instructional airframe. However, little use was made of the airframe and in 2010 it was acquired by CSE Aviation at Bournemouth Airport. With its wings removed, a fresh coat of paint and new ‘registration’ of GO-CSE, it was used for publicity purposes by CSE. In August 2013 the company donated the Tiger to the Bournemouth Aviation Museum where it is used as a hands-on exhibit for aspiring young pilots.

Since production started on 1971 a total number of 3,250 AA-5 touring aircraft have been built. A total of 7 variants of the AA-5 were produced. The AA-5B Tiger is powered by a Lycoming Engine and can carry a total fuel capacity of 24 gallons. The all metal Grumman American AA-5 series was developed from the earlier AA-1 two seater, which had been built from 1968 by American Aviation at Cleveland USA. The AA-5 Traveler was a four seater powered by a 150 hp Lycoming 0-320 engine, going into production in 1972. This was followed by the AA-5A Cheetah and then in 1975 the AA-5B Tiger with a 180 hp Lycoming 0-360 engine which gave the Tiger a good turn of speed and performance.

All versions sold in large numbers worldwide. In 1972 American Aviation were taken over by the Grumman Corporation with a change of title to the aircrafts name. In September 1978 Grumman American was taken over by Gulfstream Aerospace and production came to an end in 1979. Production restarted in 1990 when the rights to the Tiger were bought by American General Aviation who marketed it as the AG-5B Tiger. Production was slow and only 181 had been built when the firm closed in 1993. The rights were then bought by Tiger Aircraft in 2001 who commenced production once again in their West Virginia factory. However, only 51 had been built when production ended again in the summer of 2006. In all over 3,250 AA-5 versions were built.