If you like Light-Sport Aircraft and if you like statistics, you are going to love this article.* Our wholly refreshed look at aircraft registrations marks the return of our popular market share rankings and now includes much more information. We also provide more aircraft classes in various tables and charts and much of this is user-configurable.
Yet, as late night TV advertisers might exclaim, “That’s not all. It gets even better!”
You have always been able to consume all our market share info that includes articles about the industry and enterprise of light aviation conveniently grouped on its own page. With the relaunch of this popular and vital component of ByDanJohnson.com, you gain new ways of looking at the information. Let’s call it LSA Market Info 2.0
Introducing Tableau!
Using a new service that our associate Steve Beste engaged, check out the “Dashboard” look at the LSA industry at Tableau Public.
Search Results for : trikes
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Select a manufacturer to go straight to all our content about that manufacturer.
Select an aircraft model to go straight to all our content about that model.
DeLand Showcase 2018 Final Results — and Dates for 2019 Announced
DeLand proclaimed another success for 2018. As one of the “troops in the trench,” I can attest to a satisfactory event, as I chronicled in Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 articles.
Of particular note, DeLand can boast nine of nine days of wonderful weather. OK, fine, it rained one evening and winds blew somewhat furiously for a short while, but the precipitation came after show hours and no aircraft were damaged (although a couple tents took a nose dive).
I’ve opined how the thick crowds of the giant shows are not necessary and may not even be desirable. At smaller events, customers get more face time — and air time, through many demo flights launched. Exhibiting vendors got actual orders, made deliveries, and connected with pilots who may act later. When both customers and suppliers are happy, I’d call that a success.
Gyroplanes Are Big Overseas — First Market Share Info for the USA
Updated September 26, 2018 — This article has been updated to include more producers. See at bottom. —DJ
Over many years, you have found LSA market share information on this website. Many have found this of interest …from businesses learning more about their market; to customers doing careful investigation before paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a new aircraft; to government fulfilling its task of regulating industry; to insurance companies assessing risk of providing their product; and many other actors in the blockbuster movie that is light, recreational aviation.
I will have more to say about the broader LSA market share reports below but now I want to present the best information I have seen for Light-Sport Aircraft Gyroplanes.
…uh, except for one problem. No such aircraft category exists, SLSA gyroplanes, that is.
FAA has denied fully-built Special LSA status to rotary winged aircraft such as gyroplanes.
Magnus Aircraft Fusion 212 Logs Special Light-Sport Aircraft Number 146
A new-to-Americans Light-Sport Aircraft made its debut showing at AirVenture 2018. Here is the Magnus Aircraft Fusion 212.
It appears another SLSA snuck by my penetrating radar for such achievements. U.S. chief pilot Charlie Snyder told me that the first Fusion earned its Special Airworthinews certificate back in September 2017 thereby joining our SLSA List at number 146.
Magnus hails from Hungary, home to more aircraft manufacturers than you may be aware, including such as ApolloFox fixed wing and Apollo weight shift trikes.
American representation for Magnus Aircraft USA is handled by Snyder and Magnus president Istvan Foldesi. We recorded a video interview with both men at AirVenture 2018. Both live in the USA while the company CEO Laszlo Boros runs the Hungary operation in a new manufacturing plant near Pecs-Pogany Airport.
Snyder and Foldesi exhibited their brightly painted low wing that uses mostly carbon fiber construction and a dual taper wing.
Pipistrel Update — 900 Virus, “House Organ,” and Oshkosh Splash
In the world of Light-Sport Aircraft, we have more than 90 manufacturers and 145 Special LSA (see our whole list) accepted* by FAA. This huge diversity of design has given recreational pilots around the world a large number of ready-to-fly aircraft choices beyond anything we have seen in aviation since the beginning.
However, the old 80/20 rule still applies where (approximately) 80% of the aircraft sold are built by 20% of the manufacturers. It is a credit to this 14-year-old industry that even the smaller companies can remain viable enterprises. Very few of the 90+ manufacturers have left the business. However, most of the airplanes are made by a few top producers, which you can see in our market share charts.
Pipistrel is One of the Leaders
“Serial Number 900 leaves the factory headed for Australia,” glowed Michael Coates, the longtime distributor for Pipistrel aircraft in Australia and the United States.
Weird? Or, Wonderful? More Companies Move Toward eVTOL …Will Sport Pilots?
What on Earth is going on in Airplane DesignerLand? Are we headed for a bifurcation, a parting of the ways among those engineering the next generation of aircraft? Perhaps. Will this affect you? How do you feel about non-fixed-wing aircraft?
I am searching for a term to generically describe these emerging flying machines; “drones” doesn’t quite do the job. More of these seemingly-weird-looking machines seem to pop up every day.
Prior experience suggests that most will never make it to market. Ones that do succeed in the eVTOL or electric-powered aircraft market may not even exist today. For that matter, it is far from certain that this will ever turn into a market, though given the huge amounts of money pouring into research projects, it seems nearly inevitable (to me) that some will survive and perhaps have a major impact on flying, both for transportation and for sport or recreation.
Along this vein, before and at Sun ‘n Fun 2018, I spoke to officials from BRS parachutes.
Sun ‘n Fun 2018: Records Set, Sales Made, Customers Smiling
Sun ‘n Fun 2018 is done. The show actually closed early at about 1 PM due to forecasts of severe weather. Within hours, a bustling event began to look like a ghost town.
Despite the rushed finish, the event appeared to be a huge success. Reports were that it was a all-time record result for Sun ‘n Fun; we’ll wait to see the numbers to know more detail. My conversations with several vendors indicated strong sales interest and orders were taken, so customers and vendors both appear to be satisfied.
I spoke to many fans at the show and our conversations demonstrate to me that light aviation is very alive and well. In fact, I see this as one of the most invigorated periods in recent years. The interest is broad based and includes Part 103 ultralight vehicles, gyroplanes, modestly priced Special LSA, and top-line LSA models. On the kit side, interest also appears strong enough that backlogs are growing.
Day One of Rain ‘n Fun …but the Sun Is Coming
Day One of Sun ‘n Fun got off to a solid start even if a number of light aircraft arrivals are still pending. Rans Aircraft boss Randy Schlitter is one stuck behind a solid band of weather in northern Florida and he is not the only one.
Day One also brought afternoon showers that drenched the grounds for a few hours. This didn’t dampen spirits too badly, though, and the rest of the week is looking good. If you are planning to attend, your timing seems about perfect.
Before the showers, we shot a video on the venerable Kolb Firestar and another with a first-ever U.S. sighting of Rotorvox’s C2A. Not willing to risk expensive camera gear we scrubbed video recording for the rest of the day.
In LAMA‘s LSA Mall a great crop of airplanes are in position while the big tent holds a full display of engines for light planes.
DeLand is Approaching… Video Deluge Brings Attention to Exhibitors You Will See
My video partner must be working around the clock as he prepared a blizzard of videos for release starting November 1st.
As you see in the list below, 20 videos will soon be available. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
Besides giving you info on various aircraft to see at the event, we hope to encourage you to attend DeLand #2. Videos are great and in them we try to ask the questions you would ask and to show you things you’d look for if you attended. Good as videos are, nothing substitutes for you being present to ask and look yourself. I hope you can.
Videoman Dave and I will be on-site all three days of the event. We will likely be a blur in motion dashing from one fetching aircraft vendor to another to gather more article material and video interviews. We also hope to record more Video Pilot Reports, as we did last year.
Pipistrel’s Alpha Light Aircraft “Plugs In” at New Charge Station; Fuel by Electrons
Article Updated: 9/18/17 (see below)
Electric airplanes continue to catch the headlines… but don’t impact the market much (yet). That may be changing.
You rarely see advertising for Pipistrel, the Eastern European builder of several very sleek Light-Sport Aircraft. The company feels they generate interesting-enough news that media organizations will cover their accomplishments. As this and other articles prove, perhaps they’re right although most publications depend on advertiser support to allow them to provide coverage.
An example of how Pipistrel seduces the aviation press is with an announcement proclaiming their partnership with ride-sharing giant, Uber …specifically about that tech company’s aerial ambitions. At the recent Uber Elevate Summit in Dallas, Texas, “Uber signed a partnership with Pipistrel aircraft producer for large-scale deployment of electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOLs).” Pipistrel said initial vehicles [will] be used in a flight demonstration by 2020.
“Pipistrel is the only company in the world that builds and sells electric aircraft today … they are a valued partner in making Uber’s VTOL network a reality,” said Mark Moore, Director of Engineering for Aviation.
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