Search Results for : Flight Design

An article from last weekend’s news about a massive jump in LSA weight propelled this website to an all-time record as light aviation enthusiasts from around the nation and the globe signed on to make comments and shared the article with their friends.
Words you read on this website proved to be correct as more information emerges. Specifically, one large error was a quoted date for a new NPRM on this subject. Some outlets reported it would be released on January 19, 2019. NPRM is an abbreviation for Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and precedes any new regulation, allowing for comment and revision. Before such a NPRM is released, FAA has normally spoken to many parties that could be affected. That largely has not happened yet and for a good reason.
The NPRM is nowhere-near ready to be published, certainly not on such a specific date as January 19th next year.

So far, at least three entries* in the multicopter sweepstakes qualify themselves as Part 103 ultralight vehicles. I’m guessing that lead FAA rule writer, Mike Sacrey, never envisioned this idea back in 1982 when he and his team created aviation’s least-regulated aviation sector. In those days, FAA had only recently moved away from requiring that such aircraft demonstrate foot launching.
Mike would have needed a genuine crystal ball to foresee something like Scorpion 36 years ago. Let’s briefly put this in perspective — most readers had yet to buy their first computer; we were still 13 years away from the World Wide Web; it was a quarter century before the iPhone; even Light-Sport Aircraft were 22 years in the future.
Had Mike written a regulation back then to include multicopters like Scorpion he would surely have been relocated to some remote post where his craziness would not be obvious.

FAA’s Light-Sport Aircraft category involves quite the intriguing mixture of aircraft. Fixed wing aircraft of many descriptions, weight shift, powered parachute, gyroplanes, motorgliders, seaplanes, of course, and, lighter-than-air. Every niche has been well explored …except for that last one.
Now comes FlyDoo from France, an LSA-category-fitting hot-air balloon. Designer Leandro Corradini thought he could deliver something that didn’t exist in the market so he set up shop to supply envelope, basket, burner, and more in a practical, lightweight, compact, and easy-to-transport and -store package.
FlyDoo breaks down compactly enough that you could easily store it in your house or apartment. He even shows pictures of transporting it to a flying field by adding a wheel and tow bar kit to the gondola making the aircraft into a small trailer that can be towed by a bicycle.
Leandro observes that established balloon manufacturers are accustomed to working in the FAA or CAA certified aircraft environment, often building large balloons used commercially to give rides.