Once upon a time the light aircraft industry announced new manufacturers and models at the rate of two, three, or even more every month …for several years. As with every maturing industry before, this torrid pace had to slow. Yet the party isn’t over, far from it. Contrarily, I am aware of several new projects in the works and we all know of some (Icon, Terrafugia, Lisa among others) where companies have been working on their designs for some years but they have yet to secure FAA approval as a Light-Sport Aircraft. Neither has GreenWing International, a new company announced this week though that may change quickly enough.
“Yuneec International, a world leader in electric power systems, is proud to announce the formation of GreenWing International, [which is] entirely focused on bringing the revolution of electric power to the global general aviation market,” announced company CEO Tian Yu. Enthusiasts following electric powered aircraft development first saw Yuneec’s e430 at AirVenture 2009.
Archives for June 2013
Fantasy in Paris — Electric Twin & More
“How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm … after they’ve seen Paree?” That’s a timely reprise of an old show tune to bring our attention to the Paris Air Show, which is sending out some ripples in the “What’s New” Dept. Chances look better every year that electric flight will be a major player in how we take the air. And for those of you who think that’s just a bunch of hot air, you could be right, too! Read on.
Jason Paur who writes for Wired magazine gets to do all the fun stuff I just get to fantasize about … specifically, electric flight. He’s at Le Bourget Field in Paris and filed this report on an exciting new electric prototype that fits nicely into the Light Sport Aircraft specification. Here are some highlights and you can read the rest first hand at the link above.
Icon Aircraft Reports Being Fully Funded
First Icon Aircraft wowed aviation enthusiasts with its sleek and uniquely featured amphibious A5 LSA seaplane. Over the years the company reported collecting around 1,000 orders, a success story that even beats Cessna’s Skycatcher. However, several years passed and the company did not enter production, although they reported a deal with Cirrus Aircraft to handle some fabrication duties. Perhaps all that changed now. The Southern California company announced that it raised its fourth and final round of funding totaling over $60 million. They’ll use the funds to “complete production preparations, demonstrate regulatory compliance, [and] ramp up full-scale aircraft production.”
CEO and Founder of Icon Kirk Hawkins said, “For the first time in Icon’s history, the company’s future is no longer reliant on the whims of the capital markets, which have been highly unstable over the last five years.” He identified that the new financing effort was led by a “multibillion-dollar conglomerate” strategic investor from China.
Dual GPS Is More Than a Panel Top Gizmo
Aviation has embraced tablet computers like iPad to an extent no one would have imagined only three years ago. These devices are being used for far more than showing a sectional map or approach plates. In fact, with companies like Tecnam supplying Apple’s iPad Mini as standard equipment in their new Astore LSA model, these tablets are serving as more than reference or information tools. They can now act as Primary Flight Displays. They can show weather and identify airborne traffic. I’m reasonably sure even the bright folks in Apple’s engineering department never foresaw such a use, but their iPads can be seen all over the aviation spectrum.
To make tablets like iPad or those running Android more functional, we began to rely on panel top devices. Tablets and smartphones weren’t designed to work aboard aircraft. One early leader with panel top gear was Dual Electronics, which formed an aviation division to market their capability.
Rotax 912 iS Powerplant … Better than Predicted
On a visit to Rotax near Wels, Austria in April this year, I was privileged to examine the immense Rotax engine factory and test facilities with executive Christian Mundigler. Taking a whole day from his many duties, Christian gave us a thorough tour of the many departments both non-aviation and for Rotax Aircraft Engines. In our discussions, I revealed that with about 5,500 hours logged, the majority of my flight time has been behind — or in front of — Rotax powerplants. I hadn’t realized it myself, but after many years of flying nearly every ultralight aircraft and the majority of Light-Sport Aircraft for sale in the USA, my Rotax time now exceeds my Lycoming or Continental time … with some hours for Jabiru, HKS, Hirth and a few others adding to the total.
Most recently, I have been able to log more than 30 hours on the newest Rotax of all, the 912 iS.
Sophisticated LSA or “Mere Ultralight?”
I recently flew with a friend who has some interest in learning to fly. After we got out of a Flight Design CTLSi equipped with dual Dynon 10-inch SkyView screens flanking a Garmin 796 — in all, an awesome amount of beautifully presented information — my friend sighed and made a statement that he could probably never do what I’d just done. We’d gone aloft and I pointed out to him the marvels of synthetic vision, ADS-B traffic and weather, direct-to navigation that would take us straight home and so much more. No wonder he felt completely overwhelmed. I didn’t see it as overwhelming, of course. I delighted in all that easily accessed info and loved showing my friend just a few of the features available. However, on later reflection, I remembered the serious study that even an experienced pilot like myself had put into learning those magnificent digital instruments.
65 Years Later … Tecnam Astore Flies!
I just wrote about Van’s Aircraft, a 41-year-old company that just came out with their first ready-to-fly airplane. Now I want to talk about a 65-year-old company and a 65-year old airplane design, Astore. First came a 1948 Astore. Recently the 2013 Astore — just unveiled to the public last month at the Aero show — took to the air on its first flight. The Italian company showed again that they can take one of Professor Luigi’s new designs and achieve it in a remarkably short time. Head of Aircraft Design for Tecnam through the decades, Luigi Pascale will celebrate his 90th birthday later this year. As a young man he designed the first Astore and many more aircraft since. Yet this senior engineer seemingly doesn’t need a rest. Company Managing Director Paolo Pascale said of his uncle, “He is enjoying the design work … it keeps him alive!” Watch our
video interview with Paolo to hear more about the new model.
End of May 2013 LSA News Wrap
Single Seat Darling — Perhaps it’s because we haven’t had so many new SLSA offerings lately (though don’t look away too long as more are definitely on the way!). Maybe it’s because the new airplane is a single seater. Certainly we have not had many single seater SLSA … well, none so far, but that, too, is going to change with the Snap aerobatic aircraft and the electric-powered Yuneec eSpyder working on SLSA approval as one-place airplanes. It could be the low price tag. No question that a price under $60,000 for a ready-to-fly Special LSA is attractive. However, I’m always amazed at conventional aviation magazines droning on about the “high cost” of LSA when, in fact, we have many aircraft offered at below $100,000, several below $80,000, and a handful for even less the new SD-1 Minisport (and the other low-priced LSA are all two seaters).