A Few Words About
Our Team
and the Dream behind OrionCub!
Designer
Kevin Hopper
My love for aircraft began when at the age of 6 I started putting together plastic models of all my favorite warbirds.
At the age of 8 I got my first remote-controlled plane, a broken president highboy, which I fixed and flew myself.
Something about the way it moved through the air captured my imagination like nothing else could.
In 1996 I joined 43 Air School, which is located at an old Air Force base in Port Alfred, South Africa. It was there I began respraying and rebuilding aircraft, and it was there I fell in love with the cub-type aircraft. The Super Cub was the first plane I ever flew and I’ll never forget the feeling I got in my stomach as left the ground for the first time.
In 1999 I joined Krugersdorp Flying Club, after years of flying and rebuilding many different types of aircraft. My love for cubs never faded, and I had always dreamt of adding my name to the elite list of cub designers and builders around the world. In December 2005, my own cub design which was christened the Teddy, was conceptualized. In March 2007 my dream became reality as the very first Teddy took to the skies.
Kevin... designer
A few examples of the Teddy were built, but due to it being a wooden construction it became very labour and time-intensive to build and so, unfortunately, the Teddy was never taken into full production.
But I couldn’t leave it there. I was determined to build this dream. So in between servicing, building, painting, fixing and of course, flying many different types of aircraft, including multiple award-winning builds, I continued to develop and adjust the designs for my cub. The wooden fuselage design was scrapped and I opted for a steel trellis frame, with an aluminum sheeted wing. This was to be the Teddy Too.
With a new perspective and a fresh flow of new ideas we began to refine design ideas, the fuselage landing gear, wing construction, basically everything about the Teddy Too was redesigned. By 2014 I had designed and tested the new wing and empennage. In 2016 the first Teddy Too fuselage was constructed.
I recall countless hours spent with my father, in my younger years, building all kinds of things. RC Aircraft, motorcycles, and most notably the replica open MG touring cars he loved so much which were known as Orion Kit Cars. In 2020 my father fell gravely ill and before his passing I made a promise to him that I would rename the Teddy Too to the Orion Cub, and Orion Aircraft thereafter, was born. A humble tribute to a man who taught me so much.
After thousands of hours of design and analysis work, we finally concluded that we were ready to build our prototype and, having secured generous investors 21st December 2020 and with the help of my son, Dean, construction of the very first Orion Cub began.
The first Orion Cub flew in 2022 with great success and has clocked hundreds of flying hours and completed countless demo flights with almost no modifications needed. The prototype has since won various EAA prizes, STOL competitions and even came 2nd in the world rally championship.
Today Orion Aircraft is a fully-fledged aircraft manufacturing company with a well-developed manufacturing facility and more than 10 permanent staff members and as many aircraft in various stages of manufacturing at any time.
The dream is flourishing.
Meet Our Team
