This year, 2022, saw a return to all the great airshows we have come to know and love. One of my all-time favorites and my #1 pick in Europe is Aero Friedrichshafen.
I already provided three articles — (1) turbines, (2) six innovations, and (3) Aero success — covering what I found to be highlights of Aero 2022 that I thought you would like best.
Now, thanks to encouragement from Marino Boric — a Europe-based, highly-knowledgeable professional journalist — I want to provide what longtime radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to call “…the rest of the story.”
What follows is Marino’s few-paragraphs-each review of no less than 21 airplanes, 4 electric projects, and 6 combustion engines. You will not find this depth of reporting anywhere else in the USA.
Folks, this article is much longer than our usual articles (by 6X).
Archives for June 2022
Which Is More Important: Robots or Humans? Drones Want to Fly Beyond Visual Line of Sight
Airspace from ground level to 400 feet is about to get really crowded. Keep alert, fellow pilots! Am I overstating this situation? I don’t think so.
You know about drones. You may not know they are presently restricted to visual line of sight. However, a line-of-sight drone won’t get your Amazon package delivered a few miles from the distribution center to your house.
Throughout Covid, a group has been working on potential changes to FAA regulations to allow drones to fly further, beyond visual line of sight (as military drones do now). It’s abbreviated BVLOS.
It is impossible to keep up with all the regulatory actions from dozens of agencies. Some of this stuff is dry as old bones. The document I’m focused on runs to 381 pages. If you’re a real glutton for punishment, read the whole thing.
The good news = This is only an industry committee report.
Speed Cruiser from B.O.T. Aircraft Now Available as Journey from Aero Affinity
The title of this article contains a lot of information. If you are a close observer of light aircraft, you may recognize B.O.T.’s Speed Cruiser but you didn’t get the rest right away, did you? Now Available? Journey? Aero Affinity? Neither did I know these references until Sun ‘n Fun 2022, but here is the story.
I’ll get to Speed Cruiser, ‘er… Journey in a minute but first a bit about a new collaboration forming at the DeLand, Florida airport. You know the place, where the DeLand Showcase ran for five years. In case you missed the news, DeLand Showcase is no more. Director Jana Filip departed to join Sun ‘n Fun so the event she expertly ran will now give way to something new, from someone else. More on that later.
Although the DeLand Showcase prematurely ended its five-year run, the DeLand Airport remains a beehive of recreational aviation activity.
Coaxial Helicopter that Meets Part 103… and You Can Afford It!
In a time of great spectator enthusiasm for STOL competitions, wouldn’t a VTOL be even better? If a super-short takeoff is cool, why not vertical takeoff?
Of course, most of the multicopter types — flying machines sometimes called eVTOLs — take off vertically but those are different, electric flying animals. Despite waves of breathless reporting by mainstream media types, eVTOLs are not yet ready for prime time. Even if you could buy one, you probably don’t want to pay for it. Most will be very expensive.
What if you could take off vertically this year and for a price you can actually afford?
Of course, rotary-wing enthusiasts can already choose a well-proven, made-in-the-USA helicopter that complies with Part 103 and is very affordable… for any aircraft type, but almost absurdly low-cost compared to conventional helicopters. I refer to the Mosquito XEL from Composite FX (see this video), which sells for $52,000 ready to fly or $42,000 in kit form.