Now that it’s winding down, we can say it definitively: 2019 had some blockbuster stories, the top ten of which we’ve recognized here. As is always the case in aviation, where nothing except the planes themselves go very fast, many of the stories are high, or low, points in long-running tales while others are encapsulations of movements that have been hinted at before and that arrived fully formed in the past year. All of them, it’s safe to say, have roots in the past along and will surely continue to affect GA, some of them for years or decades to come.
3. The Rise of Automation
With the ascendency of drones in the universe of aviation, people piloted planes were sure to get some of the attendant autonomous tech, and they now have. Earlier this year Garmin International announced the availability of its groundbreaking Autoland utility in the Piper M600 SLS and Cirrus Vision Jet. The system will pick out an airport and runway, configure the plane on the approach, come in for a smooth landing and brake to a full stop, all without human intervention.
4. Cirrus Vision Jet G2
Cirrus Aircraftâs Vision Jet, which won aviationâs highest honor, the Collier Trophy, when the single-engine jet hit the market a few years ago, stepped it up significantly in 2019 with autothrottles and performance improvements across the board for its second generation SF-50. In so doing it earned the Plane & Pilot Plane Of The Year award.
6. Mooney’s Woes
In retrospect, when one looked at the anemic sales figures for Mooney over the past several years, the writing was on the wall, but it still served as a real shock when the company quietly furloughed nearly its entire workforce. The company, which has contracted its operations over recent years and shut down its headquarters in California, recalled its workers a couple of weeks later, but answers to how Mooney finds its way forward remain.
7. Best AirVenture Ever?
The EAAâs annual get together for a couple hundred thousand folks in Oshkosh, Wisconsin was a spectacular show, with near perfect weather, big crowds and lots of really cool planes. Oshkosh is always good. This one was special.
1. Affordable Avionics
With the prices for new aircraft putting them out of the reach of most would be owners and existing older planes lacking quality avionics, there were few if any choices for many pilots looking to buy a good plane. But the introduction by Garmin, Dynon and others of high-quality digital avionics for installation in light planes, has reinvigorated the market. Unsurprisingly, Garmin dominated the news, with several new products for planes in this segment, including the revolutionary G5 primary flight instrument, the full featured GFC-500 digital autopilot and the brand new GPS 175 and GNX-375 navigators.
8. Crash of the 9-0-9s
The crash earlier this year of the Collings Foundationâs Boeing B-17 bomber in Hartford, Connecticut, claimed the lives of seven, including a pilot who was dear to many in the vintage warbird community. It also raised the hackles of a few politicians, who couldnât help but weigh in on a topic they knew almost nothing about.
Read more about the crash 9-0-9.
Read Isabel Goyer’s Going Direct about how people talked about the crash.
2. ADS-B Is Here
Like it or not, the wait is over, and ADS-B is here, well, in a matter of days anyways. The equipment, which largely replaces the role of radar for the FAA nationwide, is mandated by January 1, 2020, for all planes in the most traveled US airspace. All reports are that many light GA planes are still non-compliant. So the story weâre keeping our eye on for 2020 is what happens when non-ADS-B planes start wandering into ADS-B-only airspace. Something tells us the FAA will let us hear all about it!
5. Pratt & Whitney Vs. GE
For years weâve been asking out loud just what was taking Pratt & Whitney so long to come up with full authority digital engine controls for its revered PT-6 lineup of turboprop engines that dominate the market. Maybe it was that market stranglehold that kept them from investing in the product, because this year the company launched FADEC models for a few popular planes, leaving us to wonder if GEâs well-publicized launch of its Catalyst FADEC engine for the Cessna Denali PC-12 competitor, nudged them in that direction. Maybe.
10. Boeing Buys ForeFlight
When Boeing announced earlier this year that it had acquired ForeFlight, the maker of the market leading navigation and charting app for phones and tablet computers, it served as an indicator of the Houston-based app developerâs rise to prominence in the GA market, and beyond. Terms of the deal were not released.
9. Electric Nothingness
There were so many announcements about electric planes standing history on its ear with the very first flight of something. The truth is, the announcements got few pilots excited because the truth is clear to us: Electric planes are a work in progress still, and even more, their ultimate adoption, if it happens at all, is dependent on breakthroughs in storage capacity.
