The aircraft is supplied as a kit or as plans for amateur construction.

[1][2][3][4] The Bearhawk was designed in the early 1990s[5] as a personal project by Barrows to carry aircraft engines for delivery as freight.

It features a strut-braced high-wing, a four-seat enclosed cabin that is 42.5 in (108 cm) wide and accessed by doors, fixed conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration.

[1][4][6] The prototype was fitted with a 170 hp (127 kW) Lycoming O-360 burning automotive fuel,[3] but in August 2023, the option of fitting the DeltaHawk DHK180 type certified, two-stroke 180 hp (134 kW) diesel engine was added.

[7] By October 2016, 77 examples had been registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration and 11 with Transport Canada.