Recently I had a visit from my longtime friend and fellow aviation journalist, James Lawrence (photo). Among other mutual interests we share a passion for electric aircraft. We’ve each flown early examples and believe we see the future. From the headline above, you might interpret that to mean we anticipate electric airliners. We might … yet we recognize such developments remain distant. Or, do they?
The electric power action today is in very light aircraft — and some are available for you to buy and fly immediately. One example is Zigolo and I’ve reported on eSpyder. The reason is that light aircraft rule is singular: batteries, which weigh too much to allow heavier aircraft any range. The ending video explains why.
Unless you’ve been off-planet for a while, you know the development of improved battery technology is drawing many billions of dollars of investment. Cars, laptops, drones and many more products or industries want better batteries.
Archives for January 2015
Evaluating the Worldwide Impact of Sport Aircraft
As the new year dawned my good friends at General Aviation News published my article on the light aircraft industry using Rotax deliveries (and estimates of other engine brands) to estimate worldwide sales of recreational or sport aircraft. The article was presented online as 2015 began and has since appeared in a print edition. This article was updated 1/12/15 and 1/23/15.
On the “The Pulse of Aviation” (sign up here; it’s free) you can read my article that generated a large number of reader comments, some of which were quite colorful. •A technical glitch that took down the comments has been fixed and you can again peruse the many comments.•
GA News is published 26 times a year (subscribe here) and the article was just released in the print version. Online, a few responders apparently didn’t think much of LSA with some relying on outdated information.
Four Days of Sebring 2015
Sebring is history, which says the aviation year is now underway. On whole it was a good show and a solid start to 2015. Sebring’s weather was overcast and cool to start though even that didn’t seem to dampen buying enthusiasm. About a dozen airplanes were sold plus numerous vendors reported finding many good prospects. By Friday afternoon the skies went to deep blue and the Sunshine State earned its nickname.
“It was a great Saturday,” wrote U.S. Sport Aviation Expo organizers. The 11th annual Expo nearly filled the auto parking lot and the transient aircraft parking area was hopping with activity, officials said.
While I write about the good news of Sebring, I want to pay respect to two fallen aviators. Dennis Day and Jason Spinks of the Aero Adventures company lost their lives in an unfortunate accident during the event. I offer my sincerest regret for this loss to their families and to the DeLand Airport business team.
7 Aircraft to Look for at Sebring 2015
We’re off to the races … OK, the race track … OK, we’re off to Sebring, which happens to be alongside the Sebring International Raceway. Yep. It’s January so it’s again time for the Sebring Expo, this time number 11, the 2015 edition of the popular Florida show. I’ll be onsite for the four days, which this year is one day sooner, running Wednesday through Saturday. The plan makes it easier for vendors to stay to the end on Saturday and still have time to get home on Sunday so they can be back in their businesses on Monday.
Every time I head to a show people contact me, including journalists from publications that don’t follow Light-Sport, light kits, ultralights, or light GA as closely as we do). The question is always the same. What new aircraft or products will we see at the show? …Uh, let me think.
Garmin’s Bon Voyage to a Longtime Team Member
When a multibillion-dollar company makes an event out of your retirement … well, that’s quite something but more importantly it shows how much that enterprise valued your years. Many people inside Light-Sport or light kit aviation know Tim Casey, the jovial expert behind Garmin’s hand-held and experimental line among many other products in his 23 years. “It has been a wonderful and exhilarating journey from the GPS 100 to G5000, and every product in between. I am forever grateful to have been given the opportunity to work with so many amazing people with a common goal to do whatever it takes to win the business and serve our customers,” said Tim.
“This is the day that I have not been looking forward to,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin’s vice president of aviation marketing and sales. “For many years Tim has been the face of Garmin’s aviation business … everyone knows him. Tim has fun every day and you can’t help but laugh along with him as he tells stories about his experiences.”
In December of 1990 after working as an air traffic controller, Tim noticed a job posting from a small company in Lenexa, Kansas for an Aviation Marketing Manager.
Going Off to the Air Races, LSA-Style
At first, it all seemed rather unlikely to me. I refer to the concept of racing LSA.
On the one hand you have a giant company with a global presence putting on the Red Bull Air Races. What a way to sell a caffeinated beverage. It works. It’s very showy. It might even induce some race watchers to take up flying. When the aircraft are not touring the race circuit, they occupy luxurious space in the fanciest hangar on the planet, Red Bull’s Hangar 7 at the Salzburg Airport in Mozart’s former home town in Austria (photo).
On the other hand we have Light-Sport Aircraft, a fairly new sector in aviation, now with one decade of history. Being in the distinctly affordable end of aviation, money does not flow as it does from Red Bull. Yet that does not mean LSA will fail to join in the air race fun.