Hardly any other series has undergone as many company and name changes over the years as the AA1 and AA5: Bede Aviation, American Aviation, Grumman American, Gulfstream American, American General, Tiger Aircraft, and True Flight Holdings LLC were all once manufacturers of one or other of the models in this series. For the sake of simplicity, we will refer to all of these aircraft here as “Grumman”, as this name has become established for AA1 and AA5 aircraft.

One can even trace the history of the Grumman back to 1960, when aircraft designer James R. “Jim” Bede began work on his first kit design, the BD-1.

The first attempt to further develop the two-seater AA1 into the four-seater AA5 began in 1970. The decision was made to simply stretch the proven design of the AA-1 a little. The result was the AA-5 “Traveler”, a four-seater with a sliding canopy, 150 hp Lycoming O-320, fixed propeller and fixed landing gear. With a cruising speed of almost 120 knots, the aircraft had an astonishing performance and an enormous payload of almost 400 kg including fuel, with a tank capacity of 140 litres. The performance and tank capacity were later increased in the AA5A, AA5B, AG5A, and AG5B models.
The aircraft on display here with the registration D-EEHA from 1972 has flown to 42 countries on four continents in the last four years and has accumulated well over 1,000 flying hours.