Affordable Aviation

On June 14, a Porto Aviation’s Risen completed the transatlantic leg of its journey from Milan, Italy, to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The company posted on social media: “We made it!!! I have been reluctant to post anything here before accomplishing this epic flight , being Italian I guess makes me more superstitious.A page in aviation history […]

If I’ve heard one lament repeatedly over a long career, it is that current pilots don’t see enough new pilots coming into aviation. Are you one who worries a little or a lot about that? If not, you are a rare pilot. Is it any wonder, though? The price of aircraft is way, way up. […]

Editor’s Note: Recent commentary on the future of Rotax engines brought out a few comments that high-spec versions of the 900-series engines already exist, just in the aftermarket. For a deeper dive into the topic, here’s a story that ran in early 2023 in KITPLANES from Eric Stewart, a regular contributor to that magazine. Prices […]

Light Sport enthusiasts who appreciate light, simple, inexpensive airplanes have been watching Sonex Aircraft develop the High Wing model for a couple of years now. It’ll first come out as an Experimental/Amateur-Built version but the company is very much open to considering an E-LSA and even, with some outside help, an S-LSA version. (Or whatever […]

In a previous post,  introduced our video project for building the Affordaplane. To review, this is the plans-only project I demonstrated on YouTube for building an ultralight from raw materials. (You’ll find this free 50-part series here.) My objective was to build an “FAA-legal” ultralight using approved aircraft materials and techniques. This month, I will […]

Here’s the backdrop of today’s update on the LSA seaplane sector as summer approaches. According to Law360, an online legal news source, “Light-Sport Aircraft manufacturer Icon Aircraft filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court with more than $170 million in debt and plans for an asset sale and liquidation.” You may have read […]

  In our original post, we linked to video of the TrueLite performing taxi tests. Now it’s done better: flying! See the new videos below as Chip Erwin documents the first flights of the TrueLite happening now in Florida. Those of us looking for pure flying in lightweight form can’t help but be intrigued by […]

Untethered prognostication is what you do waiting for the rain showers to blow through and the sun to reemerge on your long cross country. Me? I sorta do it for a living. (Such as that is.) And I get to do it often enough in front of people who work deep in the industry to […]

As we move toward MOSAIC as a new reality in the Light Sport/Sport Pilot world, it’s worth knowing how we got here. MOSAIC does, after all, leverage right off of the success of the LSA category. In this casual conversation, I chat with Dan Johnson about the early days of LSA and get some questions […]

Icon is a global enterprise. While its headquarters remains in Vacaville, California, fabrication is done in Mexico, and ownership is in China. For some years, this American start-up has benefitted from Chinese investment. How much investment has this California company attracted? Numbers I’ve been quoted vary enormously but all estimates run into many millions of […]