American Champion Decathlon Fossett was flying a Bellanca-built Super Decathlon when he went missing on September 3, 2007. He took off from an airstrip at William Barron Hilton's Flying-M Ranch, about southeast of Reno, Nevada. Remains of the plane were found 13 months later near the town of Mammoth Lakes, California, just south of the original search area. James May, a presenter on "The Grand Tour" owned an 8KCAB Decathlon with the registration G-OCOK, in reference to his catch-phrase on the television series "Top Gear". American Champion Decathlon The American Champion 8KCAB Decathlon and Super Decathlon are two-seat fixed conventional gear light airplanes
American Champion Decathlon produced and has made the aluminum-spar wings available for retrofit installation on older aircraft. Compared to the Citabria’s wingspan of , the Decathlon’s wingspan is shorter, at . One of the major developments of the 8KCAB Decathlon over the 7KCAB Citabria is the Decathlon’s wing, which employs a semi-symmetrical airfoil, as opposed to the Citabria’s flat-bottomed airfoil. This change gives the Decathlon better inverted flight and negative-g maneuver capabilities. The landing gear of the Decathlon is in a conventional arrangement. The main gear legs of most Decathlons are made of spring steel, though American Champion began to use aluminum gear