type privately held company industry aerospace founded circa 2003 headquarters detroit lakes minnesota united states key people engineer eric grina products kit aircraft website www.fly fbi.com free bird innovations inc. is an american aircraft manufacturer based in detroit lakes minnesota and formed in about 2003 . the company specializes in the design and manufacture of ultralight aircraft in the form of plans and kits for amateur construction and ready to fly aircraft in the us far 103 ultralight vehicles category . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 contents 1 history 2 aircraft 3 references 4 external links history edit the two seat freebird ii was introduced by the freebird airplane company of marshville north carolina at sun n fun in 1996 . two years later they brought out the single seat freebird i before going out of business . by 2000 both designs were being built by pro sport aviation of wingate north carolina who also built a derivative single seater the pro sport sportlite 103 . 1 free bird innovations took over the freebird i and ii designs and by 2004 was producing three derivative models the single seat free bird sportlite 103 kit aircraft for the us far 103 ultralight category and the free bird sportlite ss and free bird sportlite 2 two seaters . in 2007 they were building three further developed models the single seat free bird litesport ultra and the two seat free bird litesport ii and free bird litesport classic and continued those models through 2011 . the litesport ii model had been dropped by 2012 . 1 3 4 5 6 7 despite the litesport model name none of the company s aircraft were ever listed by the us federal aviation administration as light sport aircraft . 8 the company had been developing a new model the freebird 103 originally projected for introduction in 2011 as a single seat us far 103 ultralight aircraft with a design empty weight under 254 lb 115 kg . the project received a setback when the lead project engineer eric grina was killed in a car accident in october 2011 . 6 aircraft edit summary of aircraft built by free bird innovations and its predecessors model name first flight number built type freebird ii 1996 single seat ultralight aircraft produced by freebird airplane company & pro sport aviation freebird i 1998 two seat ultralight aircraft produced by freebird airplane company & pro sport aviation free bird sportlite 103 by 2004 single seat ultralight aircraft produced by free bird innovations free bird sportlite ss by 2004 two seat ultralight aircraft produced by free bird innovations free bird sportlite 2 by 2004 two seat ultralight aircraft produced by free bird innovations free bird litesport ultra by 2007 357 2011 single seat ultralight aircraft produced by free bird innovations free bird litesport ii by 2007 352 2011 two seat ultralight aircraft produced by free bird innovations free bird litesport classic by 2007 102 2011 two seat ultralight aircraft produced by free bird innovations free bird 103 2011 one single seat ultralight aircraft planned but never produced by free bird innovations references edit a b c cliche andre ultralight aircraft shopper s guide 8th edition page b 26 b 58 and b 81 cybair limited publishing 2001 . isbn 0 9680628 1 4 purdy don aerocrafter homebuilt aircraft sourcebook page 166 . bai communications . isbn 0 9636409 4 1 a b downey julia kit aircraft directory 2005 kitplanes volume 21 number 12 december 2004 pages 59 60 . belvoir publications . issn 0891 1851 a b downey julia 2008 kit aircraft directory kitplanes volume 24 number 12 december 2007 page 53 . belvoir publications . issn 0891 1851 a b vandermeullen richard 2011 kit aircraft buyer s guide kitplanes volume 28 number 12 december 2011 page 55 . belvoir publications . issn 0891 1851 a b c free bird innovations 21 november 2011 . freebird 103 . archived from the original on 4 january 2012 . retrieved 21 march 2015 . a b bayerl robby ; martin berkemeier ; et al world directory of leisure aviation 2011 12 page 56 . wdla uk lancaster uk 2011 . issn 1368 485x federal aviation administration 5 march 2015 . slsa make model directory . retrieved 22 march 2015 . external links edit official website company website archives on archive.org v t e free bird innovations aircraft single seat aircraft freebird i freebird 103 litesport ultra sportlite 103 two seat aircraft freebird ii litesport ii litesport classic sportlite 2 sportlite ss companies freebird airplane company pro sport aviation free bird innovations retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title free bird innovations & oldid 714066803 categories aircraft manufacturers of the united statesultralight aircrafthomebuilt aircraft navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 7 april 2016 at 12 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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