A Rebel owner who needs a part from Chilliwack, or a builder partway through a Moose, has a new problem. Murphy Aircraft, the British Columbia kit company Darryl Murphy started in 1985, has stopped operating, and everything in its shop has been sold.
Canadian Aviator reported the news on Oct. 28. AVweb reports the auction ran through Able Auctions on Oct. 22 after a dispute over unpaid rent, with about 170 lots, among them a laser cutter, a 400-ton hydraulic press brake, aluminum stock and an incomplete kit airplane. Able Auctions' general manager told Canadian Aviator that everything sold.
How it got here
Murphy sold the company in 2022 to the Duofu Group, a Beijing conglomerate. Canadian Aviator reports that Duofu's founder, Hu Xingrong, was detained by Chinese police on July 7, 2026, and that financial support for Murphy Aircraft then dried up. It also reports that suppliers had begun asking for payment in advance. Canadian Aviator's owner worked for Murphy as sales manager from July 2024 to September 2025, and the magazine says so in its report.
What nobody has answered
AVweb reports no plan to restart production or move the designs to another company, and says the future of the designs and manufacturing documents is unclear. Parts, technical support and open orders are all unanswered. AvBrief reports that some builders will lose substantial deposits on recently ordered kits, without saying how many or how much. None of those reports names a trustee or receiver, or says how a customer would file a claim. Murphy's website didn't answer when Hangar Debrief tried it on Nov. 2.
How many airplanes this touches
Hangar Flying's copy of the FAA registry, taken Sept. 27, lists 134 U.S. aircraft with Murphy named as the kit manufacturer: 44 Rebels, 32 Moose, 22 Elites, 18 Super Rebels, 13 Renegades, three Yukons and two Mavericks. That's a floor, since it counts only aircraft whose registration names Murphy as the kit maker.
Canadian Aviator says more than 2,000 kits had been sold by 2018, over half of them to the United States, so the kits that never reached the registry under that name far outnumber those that did. On Hangar Flying's Panel Designer, 72 accounts have saved 116 panel designs on Murphy airframes.
An owner of a flying airplane
The closure doesn't change an amateur-built airplane's airworthiness certificate. Part 43 doesn't apply to an aircraft with an experimental certificate, unless it held a different kind of airworthiness certificate before (14 CFR 43.1(b)), and the airplane's own operating limitations still govern how it flies and who signs its condition inspection.
What changes is where an answer comes from. An owner who hasn't got a complete set of the airplane's manuals, drawings and any service information from Murphy should gather it now, from their own files and the builder's, and keep a copy off the hangar shelf.
A builder with a project under way
The amateur-built rule turns on who did the work. 14 CFR 21.191(g) asks that the major portion of the aircraft was fabricated and assembled by people building it for their own education or recreation. It doesn't mention a kit manufacturer. Builders should still talk to their inspector or designee before leaving the kit's design or substituting major parts, and keep every photograph and log entry, because that's the evidence of who built what.
The harder question is parts that only Murphy made. Until someone says who holds the designs and tooling data, a builder missing a formed or cut part may have to look to other builders or the used market.
Anyone with money in an order
A builder with a deposit outstanding should collect the order, invoices and proof of payment in one place now. Whether a card issuer or a court can help depends on how the money was paid and where the builder lives, so that's a question for the card issuer and a lawyer. Canadian owners and builders work under Transport Canada's rules, not the FAA sections above.
Hangar Debrief will report who ends up with the designs, or a claims process, when either is public.
Sources: Canadian Aviator, "Murphy Aircraft Insolvent," Oct. 28, 2026; AVweb, "Murphy Aircraft Insolvent, Factory Operations End," Oct. 30, 2026; AvBrief, "Murphy Aircraft Insolvent, Future Uncertain for Builder Support," Oct. 27, 2026; EAA, Darryl Murphy and the Homebuilders Hall of Fame; 14 CFR 21.191; 14 CFR 43.1.
Photo: Murphy Moose N305RG.jpg) by Jeroen Stroes Aviation Photography, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.