What an amazing day! I heard of — count ’em — no less than three first flights. I don’t ever recall getting that kind of news in such a batch, but hooray! More airplanes to report on and more for customers to consider for their flying enjoyment. First up is the Glasair Merlin. I looked at the mockup of this new design at AirVenture 2014 (see video) and now she’s flying. Glasair Aviation announced that their new Light-Sport Aircraft entry named Merlin “took its first flight through the skies above Arlington Municipal Airport Tuesday, April 7, 2015.” After many months of development work, the company put the new two seater through a regimen of preflight validation testing that included engine run-up, high-speed taxi, and ground roll lift off. Having completed this important set of tasks the team at Glasair watched as Merlin departed the surface with test pilot Grant Smith at the controls.
With 
Some companies will not be attending not because their projects have stopped but because they are at critical junctions. Among those missing will be the Volocopter from e-Volo nor any man-carrying aircraft display by Yuneec — which last year showed their eSpyder that had just won German approval. However, the company will be present with their drone/UAV models and their electric powered skateboards, the latter seen at AirVenture 2013.
Martin Stepanek from the Czech company 
Willi wrote, "A newcomer at the e-flight-expo is Chip Erwin from Florida. His company 
As you look at the photos in this article and compare them with the P2008 (bottom photo), you see the resemblance clearly. One evolved from the other. "P" refers to Pascale, specifically Professor Luigi Pascale, the 
At their space at Sun 'n Fun, expect to see P2010, the Twin, and several Tecnam LSA including the high wing P2008 (photo below) and low-wing Astore 
Tecnam had a strong year last year with reasonable sales of Light-Sport Aircraft plus larger, certified airplanes into the U.S. market. Around the world, according to the report released by GAMA and confirmed personally by Managing Director Paolo Pascale, 
Tecnam is leading this charge with the 2006-era Tecnam Twin that uses two Rotax 912 engines, but they have since gained regulatory approval for their single engine four seater, P2010. (Tecnam models indicate the year the design was initiated.) The company is also going further upscale with a design seating eleven and they are joined by other LSA builders in this goal but we will delve into that story later.
Recently Tecnam reported, "P2006T Twin has successfully achieved certification to enable it to carry passengers for hire." Twin is a four seater, not the larger P2012 Traveler, but they know it is certainly capable of hauling paying passengers (photo). "[We] will promote P2006T Twin for charter and air-taxi usage."
The first Tecnam P2006T Certificate for Passenger Transportation is operated by Russia-based Chelavia. Established in 2003, ChelAvia currently operates nearly 100 Tecnam aircraft and is actively engaged in training commercial pilots for some Russian airlines.
Tecnam's P2006 Twin airframe was selected by NASA for an 18-motor experimental project. Here is some of the out-of-the-box thinking that speculates that an aircraft fitted with a long string of small electric motors can theoretically perform well.
NASA loves its abbreviations and trick phrases so the program is called LEAPtech with LEAP standing for Leading Edge Asynchronous Technology. The aim is reported as being "developing safer, more energy efficient, lower operating cost and greener General Aviation aircraft."
NASA will fit an experimental 31-foot aircraft wing with 18 electric motors placed along the leading edge onto a Tecnam P2006T aircraft frame (photos). The electric motors are powered by lithium iron phosphate batteries. American companies ESAero and Joby Aviation will manufacture and integrate wing and motors on the P2006T airframe. Tecnam said, "Researchers hope to fly the modified Tecnam P2006T piloted X-plane within the next couple years."
Besides the available-today quality, the DeLand, Florida-based company has a seaplane the rest of us can afford. Can you believe average kit prices in the mid-$50,000s and starting below $49,000?
Even if you have not sought out this company with a long history, the brand may seem familiar and that sense may bring a recent memory of another sort. Yes, it was an Aventura that probably stalled, claiming the lives of two Aero Adventure team members at Sebring 2015. Such a severe event deals a body blow to a small company. Yet owner Alex Rolinski reported that the team has reassessed and regrouped and are forging ahead ... certainly as their departed associates would have preferred.
"It made quite an impact on all of us," said Alex. "You can't plan for that sort of thing. You don't imagine, 'What could go wrong and cause such an accident?'" Following the tragedy, Alex R, his operations manager Alex Gutierrez, and their associates, rolled up their sleeves even higher and dove into their work. Work can be good therapy.
"Over the last year we completely redid the assembly manual," said Alex Rolinski. He reported that all drawings have made the transition to Solid Works, a high end computer-aided design program that provides engineers — builders also benefit — with scalable drawings that can be examined in fine detail to assure better fit and finish of completed kits.
"Our kit build process is better than it's ever been," Alex said, using construction of sub-assemblies that build upon one another. He noted that even though the 
Alex reported that 166 airplanes are flying under the Aventura model name. In 2014, the company delivered a dozen kits and said interest is growing. When I asked about all variations in the airplane, dating back to the earliest Buccaneers, Alex believes around 1,000 kits have been completed, although he observed prior company records were not as complete as he'd prefer.
An Aventura kit seaplane can do real duty. For example, Ms. Tanille DeLair has flown her Aventura — which she named "Juliette" — more than a thousand hours. A Florida resident, she has often flown her seaplane to and from New York and helped her boyfriend obtain his Sport Pilot certificate in her Aventura. They've made several flights over to the Bahamas. Her airplane uses the 
All over the world, electric airplanes are getting remarkable amounts of attention, deservedly so as an exciting development to match work in cars and other vehicles. These days, while drones (also called UAVs, UASs, or RPVs) are made in various countries, a lot of the development comes from China ... so why be surprised to hear of a positive development in a Chinese human-occupied aircraft?
Is it the first "certified" electric? Well, "certified" is a term that can be challenging to define as the word means different things in different countries. For example, we've already produced a 
eSpyder developer Yuneec has also worked extensively on their 
Cafe credited Xinhua News Agency, which reported "a maximum cruising speed of up to 150 kilometers per hour (93 mph or 80 knots), and the ability to climb to 3,000 meters (10,800 feet) at a maximum takeoff weight of 480 kilograms (1,056 pounds)." RX1E is said to have a takeoff distance of 290 meters (930 feet), and a landing distance (probably over a barrier) of 560 meters (1,792 feet). Power is supplied by a 30 kW (40 hp) Sineton electric motor. Contrarily, Cafe notes, Yuneec employs a company-produced powerplant; they are famous for powerplant developments driven by their huge success in radio control models.
My source of the certification news offered to ask company officials for more details and when I have more I will update this article.
Last fall our good friend Mary Grady writing for 