Affordable Aviation

One of the most celebrated of the Light-Sport Aircraft fleet is Icon Aircraft‘s A5 seaplane. The Southern California company has passed the benchmark set by Cessna after they first announced their Skycatcher to great fanfare back in 2007. Since Icon first emerged in 2005, the company has gone from one man with an idea to […]

The developer refers to this long sleek flying maching as, “the first solar powered airplane with a passenger seat.” After his many years of development — longer than other projects that have captured more media attention — Eric Raymond’s Sunseeker Duo may be the most advanced solar powered airplane in the world and … he […]

Aero 2014 is history now but sorting through all the discoveries and reviewing hundreds of photos I shot will consume more time. Just to give a flavor of the diversity in the halls, I present some images below with photo captions. As time allows I will provide several articles about aircraft and concepts contained in […]

For most of the years I have been flying, we (in the USA) had NOAA aviation charts and Jeppesen Sanderson charts. Other companies supplied maps and charts as well, but NOAA and Jepp dominated. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aeronautical charts were published by NOAA’s National Ocean Service until publication was taken over by […]

It depended on whom you asked. As in the United States some were skeptical at Aero. “Oh, this will go nowhere.” “No one is interested” “We tried this and it didn’t work.” Maybe these naysayers are right, but the activity at one booth (or “stand” as they prefer in Europe) seemed to powerfully counteract that […]

From the outdoor event at Sun ‘n Fun we jetted across the Atlantic to go indoors for Europe’s amazing air “fair” (as they prefer in Europe versus “airshow”). Aero always manages to please and this year was no exception. My only objection was the very tight timing with Sun ‘n Fun, which left us packing […]

The weather, big crowds, safe flying and airshow speed, action, and thunder combined to make Sun ‘n Fun 2014 one to remember. As reported in AVweb, top man John “Lites” Leenhouts was quoted, “We’re up 20 percent overall, as of Saturday night, over our average for the last 12 years.” As proof of crowds that […]

At Sun ‘n Fun 2014, Rotax Aircraft Engine manager Christian Mundigler noted the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the four cylinder 9-series engine family including 80-horsepower 912 UL, 100-horsepower 912 ULS, 115-horsepower turbocharged 914, and fuel injected 912 iS. In further celebration he also announced the worldwide introduction of the new 912 iS Sport. […]

By their reported numbers Tecnam lays claim to be the largest producer of very light aircraft. I use that term versus Light-Sport Aircraft as the Italian manufacturer is not the leading LSA seller yet their sales figures support the company being the world’s largest for LSA-type aircraft. For at least the last couple years, Tecnam […]

For a billion-dollar, publicly-listed company Garmin (stock symbol: GRMN) has repeatedly displayed the nimbleness of a start-up enterprise. As if to prove this point Garmin announced several new products for the start of Sun ‘n Fun. And for those of us who need some introduction to these new gee-whiz gizmos, the company has a seminar […]