Manufacturers

Another one managed to slip by my radar. I follow LSA closer than most yet I can barely keep track of all the approvals. No wonder I frequently get calls asking me to unravel the puzzle of LSA makes and models. *** Better late than never, welcome the Predator powered parachute to our SLSA List […]

Paradise Aircraft, based in Florida, joins the Facebook crowd with its own fan page here.  Chris Regis, U.S. rep for the Brazilian-based company which has certified the airplane in the United States, Brazil, Australia and South Africa, tells me the company is moving ahead after a good spring sales performance with some company and product […]

I am not aware of any other airplane company on Earth that builds both airframes and powerplants. Jabiru does. The Australian company has been doing this for years and has supplied approximately 2,000 airframes and more than 6,000 engines to the light aircraft market, according to Jabiru USA boss, Pete Krotje. That’s cool, but if […]

Whoopsie.  In my last post on the Phoenix motorglider, I had some incorrect info that Jim Lee set me right on, so here’s the skinny. *** Urban Air USA, which Jim represented and which imported and marketed the Lambada motorglider is being purchased, he said, “with plans to return the Samba XXL (composite low wing […]

Recently, I blogged about a Tennessee town that welcomed Skykits from Canada, providing a brand-new facility for them to use. A town in Florida also saw the potential of a light aircraft manufacturer and had a new building with lake access available. *** Arguably the most successful light aircraft seaplane producer is Progressive Aerodyne and […]

One of the oft-repeated questions about this new thing called Light-Sport Aircraft is: “When will the shakeout occur? When will some of these 75 companies [who certified a SLSA] disappear… and which ones will fail?” *** First, my ability to see the future is no better than anyone else. We’ve lost a few suppliers (Taylorcraft, […]

I’ve had my head buried in pilot reports, image processing and P&P’s 2010 LSA Buyer’s Guide. Guides in particular never seem like they’ll be such a mind-numbing chore yet every time the same number of eyeball-jittering, typing finger-stiffening days roll by. Look for it in the Oshkosh issue, late June I think. *** There are […]

As they connect the dots of their plan to circumnavigate the world in celebration of 100 years of aviation in Switzerland, Yannick Bovier and Francisco Agullo have now spanned one immense body of water. The pair of twin Flight Design CTLS “Ecolight” aircraft cleared a big hurdle with the jump across the Atlantic from Africa […]

I once followed judging at shows like AirVenture and Sun ‘n Fun. In fact, an aircraft I helped inspire — a modernized primary glider called the SuperFloater — won Outstanding New Design at Sun ‘n Fun 1995. Judges closely examined homebuilts, kit or restored vintage airplanes, and warbirds. If they included factory built aircraft, I […]

Way back near the dawn of Light-Sport Aircraft… in 2007, two Indian military pilots flew a CT around the world to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Indian Air Force. (CT later became one of the first LSA used in an Indian flight school.) *** On April 30th, two Swiss airline pilots took off on […]