About the Company
Jabiru North America, LLC, a family-owned and operated business, is the world’s largest distributor of Jabiru brand aircraft and aircraft engines. In the late 1990s, Pete Krotje (pronounced like “Karate”) and his son, Ben, turned their hobby of building and flying Experimental aircraft into a business when they became a dealer for Titan Aircraft at Brennand Airport in Neenah, Wisconsin. Their early ultralight aircraft were powered by two-stroke Rotax engines. After a few failures, they began to explore the freshly-introduced four-stroke Jabiru 2200 as a more reliable option. Pete received his first Jabiru 2200, s/n 22A319, in 1998, and it was a huge success on his Titan Tornado. By 1999, the Krotjes were a dealer for Jabiru engines and ran a builder-assist company that specialized in the Titan Tornado, early Jabiru aircraft kits, and later the Esqual, a Spanish composite low-wing lightplane that would evolve into the present-day Arion Lightning.
A pair of J230-SP Special Light Sport Aircraft fly in formation over Shelbyville.A pair of J230-SP Special Light Sport Aircraft fly in formation over Shelbyville.
Jabiru USA Sport Aircraft was established in 2001 by the Krotjes as a full-service Jabiru center, offering sales & service of Jabiru aircraft engines and airframe kits. By 2004, the business outgrew the small facility in Neenah, so the family moved south to their present location among the rolling horse pastures of Shelbyville, TN. In 2005, Jabiru USA began manufacturing turn-key Jabiru Special Light-Sport Aircraft. Together with Jabiru PTY LTD, Jabiru USA is one of the top 10 Light-Sport manufacturers (ByDanJohnson.com) in the USA. Today, Jabiru LSA owners fly all over the USA for pleasure flying, traveling, and flight training, enjoying one of the best safety records in the Light-Sport industry. Over 3,000 of the 7,000+ engines produced by Jabiru are flying in the USA on Light-Sport and amateur-built aircraft.