Established August 1993, Kitplanes for Africa started production of the Bushbaby aircraft. The Bushbaby made a name for itself as a true Bushplane in the Microlight and Light Sport Aircraft category and soon became South Africa's best selling light aircraft with more than 160 Bushbabies sold.
The Explorer came into production in 2003, the initial Explorer was in essence an upgraded Bushbaby. Changes were made to the tail area as well as the cabin areas and landing gear. With further upgrades and subtle changes in the process, a third model was added in 2008 to the already popular pool called the Safari. The Safari is the largest of the three models with a maximum take off weight of up to 750kg (Experimental) but restricted to 600kg in the LSA (light sport category) and with a Rotax 912 ULS engine.
KFA is based at the Petit Airport (FARA) near Benoni, Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2018 the process for achieved the German type approval for the Bushbaby Explorer was started. This aircraft fell into the new 600kg UL category in Germany and it was decided to use the German DULV (a local German Rereational Ultright Assosiation) as the certifying body and also use the LTF-UL 2019 certification standard as the basis for the approval. It was also decided to rename the Bushbaby Explorer to the EXPLORER UL-600. During October 2018 all structural and computational requirements were met and the factory prototype was issued a Permit to Fly. The type certificate for the KFA Explorer UL-600 was issued during December 2019 and the aircraft is now certified as a 600kg UL aircraft in Germany.
