Bad news for kit builders: Murphy Aircraft, the Canadian company behind the Rebel, the Moose and the Renegade, has stopped production after becoming insolvent.
Darryl Murphy founded the company in 1985 in British Columbia, and over the years it sold more than 2,000 kits. The Elite and the Radical were Murphy designs too. In 2022 the company was bought by Duofu Group, a conglomerate based in Beijing that has reportedly been short of cash.
The end was not pretty. After a dispute over unpaid rent, what was left of the factory in Chilliwack went under the hammer on 22 October 2026. About 170 lots were sold, including a laser cutter, a 400-ton press brake, aluminium stock and an unfinished kit aircraft.
The big worry is for owners and builders. Nobody has said yet what will happen to open orders, spare parts or technical support, and it isn’t clear who owns the designs now. There’s no sign so far of another company picking them up.
If you’re building a Murphy right now, the owners’ community is about to become your best friend.
Source: AVweb (Matt Ryan), 30 October 2026
Photo (a Murphy Rebel in its hangar): Ken Hodge / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0