Affordable Aviation

Light-Sport Aircraft ended a successful year in 2007 with sales up 98%, registering 565 new fixed wing airplanes for the calendar year for a total of 1,118 airplanes. Including weight shift, powered parachutes, and gliders (no gyro or lighter-than-air yet), total registrations for the year hit 720, up 120% over the previous year close and […]

Who in the Light-Sport Aircraft business wouldn’t like to log a sale to the President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes? CubCrafters made such a delivery yesterday when they presented a special Sport Cub S2 to Scott Carson. The 34-year Boeing veteran makes the big planes by day and can now fly his Light-Sport Aircraft […]

SEBRING 2008 — Every outdoor airshow organizer must cope with weather. Florida was beautiful before the Sebring Expo opened. Cold, strong wings the final day brought out jackets but several companies continued demo flying. Plenty of flights were taken during the event and good sales were reported by several companies including Flight Design, Cirrus, Cessna, […]

SEBRING 2008 — Opening day started fast with press announcements from Cirrus — the GA company started taking orders for their SRS — and from Flight Design as the company unveiled their much-anticipated CTLS. But that was hardly all as the fourth Sebring Expo got going. I found a dozen newsworthy airplanes at the event […]

SEBRING 2008 UPDATE — Like rapid fire, approvals and preparations for the Sebring Expo are coming quickly. In less than a month before Sebring we’ve seen approval of the SeaMax amphib; Rans’ all metal S-19; the super-wide S-Wing; all-new Flight Design CTLS; composite Dynamic WT9; long-gliding Lamabada, and many upgrades to the Thorpedo 120LP and […]

SEBRING 2008 UPDATE — OK, two hardly makes an invasion, but after 32 months, we had no Brazilian Special Light-Sport Aircraft; now we have two since Christmas. On January 10th, the American importer of Paradise P-1 won approval to become our newest SLSA model. Like nearly every player in the LSA industry, Paradise will display […]

SEBRING 2008 UPDATE — U.S. rep’ Lynne Birmingham beamed, “The Eaglet has landed!” She referred to the newest Tecnam model to win SLSA approval — the fourth model from the Italian manufacturer. Eaglet makes its worldwide debut at Sebring 2008, which opens today. Tecnam has achieved an enviable #4 rank in the U.S. Light-Sport Aircraft […]

SEBRING 2008 UPDATE — Through the first three years of LSA sales StingSport from TL Ultralights has earned the #7 rank equaling an estimated 5% of the U.S. market. The new Sting S3 should push the popularity of this 98% carbon fiber low wing. S3 has a new fully-tapered wing and redesigned elevator trim. According […]

SEBRING 2008 UPDATE — After watching hang gliders speck-out to 5,000 feet at Wallaby Ranch, I was caught off guard when a slippery white airplane streaked across my field of vision. Following a low pass, the bird with the gorgeous slender wings turned and approached for landing. At a hang gliding resort like Wallaby, the […]

SEBRING 2008 UPDATE — Sport Aircraft Works, importer and marketer of the fast-selling SportCruiser, will announce an LSA version of their Dynamic WT9. Previously, the retractable speedster (174 mph max cruise) was only available as a kit but the Slovak designer decided to pursue American SLSA certification at 550 kg (1,212 pounds). [UPDATE: Dynamic won […]