Len and Les Alford of Jabiru Aircraft Southern Africa are the South African dealers for Jabiru. They approached Jabiru in 2012 suggesting there was a market for a twin engine Jabiru in Africa. They explained that parts of Africa are best flown over at a great heights, and the prevalence of wild animals and AK47s tends to make flyers nervous about outfield landings. The conclusion…two engines would be nice. The project was always intended to be a joint development and aimed at the South African market. Jabiru had conjured the concept of a twin for some time but could not face up to the complexity generated by hanging the engines off the wings. This would have meant going back to basics on wing structure and all the difficulties of fire-proofing the wings, etc. Another physical difficulty was the engine pods completely obstructed the entry and exit points to the cabin. These considerations gave birth to the idea of mounting the engines on a short canard mounted on the firewall. Some quick calculations on the weight and balance weren’t too frightening and Jabiru was able to get the propellers quite close together to reduce the amount of asymmetric thrust on one engine. The issue of opening the doors against the engine pods was resolved and the design evolved from there. Jabiru’s John Farmer got to work making a streamlined nose for a J430 airplane and the two engine pods. Jabiru’s engineer, Tom Ferguson, was given the task of testing the supporting structure for the engines. As usual, most of the structure was built in composite with aluminum connections to the engines. The firewall structure of the J430 is unchanged and the nose wheel remains in its normal position. This is a relatively simple bolt-on modification. When the structure was finished and the molds were complete, the project was shipped to South Africa where the airplane was completed into a flying prototype. Jabiru is considering releasing the aircraft as a kit for Australian and U.S. builders, and in other countries that accept the experimental category. It’s also possible that it could be released as a conversion to existing experimental J430s in Australia.
