One of the fast paced developments I’ve observed has been Aeromarine LSA’s new Merlin PSA. “PSA” stands for Personal Sport Aircraft and the Florida company may be truly onto something interesting.
While recognizing they are very capable airplanes, many lament the cost of carbon fiber speedsters with glass cockpits and autopilots. Aeromarine LSA perceives an opening.
Introduced at the U.S. Sport Aviation 2016 event in Sebring last month, proprietor Chip Erwin said Merlin PSA drew questions: “It only costs $35,000?” and, “That price really includes the engine?”
A longtime entrepreneur in the light aircraft manufacturing game, Chip sees a way to attract buyers with a very modestly priced aircraft that is fully enclosed, made with all metal construction and with interesting powerplant choices.
The first U.S. Merlin PSA is powered with the 65 horsepower Rotax 582 that provide outstanding performance for such a light aircraft.
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Two LSA Manufacturers Score Overseas
American readers of ByDanJohnson.com may be surprised to hear that more than a third of all visitors are from outside the United States. In a related fact, America has more pilots than any other country (very roughly half of the world aviator population) but more light aircraft are sold in other country by a ratio of around 10:1. These figures are fuzzy for a number of reasons but the point is that for LSA, the world is their market.
That statement is further proven by two recent successes.
Evektor reported it successfully passed the audit of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for production at the company’s Kunovice, Czech Republic plant. “CAAC’s audit team inspected the production facilities of Evektor-Aerotechnik focused on quality assurance, engineering and manufacturing, and quality inspections of fixed wing light sport aircraft,” said Evektor.
This Czech company — the first to obtain FAA acceptance back in 2005 — was able to prove compliance with CAAC requirements for Light-Sport Aircraft, meaning Evektor is fully authorized by the CAAC for deliveries of SportStar SL aircraft to the Chinese market.
Sling News & Video Maker Paul Hamilton
When you deliver an airplane to an accomplished video producer you are bound to get some great photos out of the deal. The images with this article show video impresario (and my longtime friend), Paul Hamilton, flying new Sling N288SL around beautiful Lake Tahoe not far from his home base in Nevada. Paul has been around light aviation for more years that he may be willing to admit. He has long promoted weight shift aircraft and was influential in developing early LSA training documents and videos in addition to making several video productions that were enjoyable to watch.
The Airplane Factory USA boss Matt Liknaitzky wrote, “It was another great showing for the Sling at Sun ‘n Fun 2015 and our team has been busy ever since.” Regarding the new delivery, he added, “In some recent exciting news, another Sling has stretched its wings! N288SL, a brand new Sling [powered by the fuel injected Rotax] 912iS, made the journey to its new home at Paul Hamilton’s Sport Aviation Center at the Carson City Airport (KCXP).
PSA: An Affordable Aircraft?
The following article is a guest editorial by Chip Erwin, a name many rightfully associate with the highly successful SportCruiser LSA. A restless entrepreneur, Chip has been working behind the curtain for several years. He emerged with the Zigolo and is now proposing a fresh name for a segment that seems to have energy behind it. I have reported on England’s new SSDR 300 category and I have observed the rejuvenation of Part 103 vehicles. So, on our recent travels to China, I encouraged Chip to express what he has in mind.
Article Update 6/15/15 — At the end of this article see our video shot at Sun ‘n Fun 2015 regarding Chip’s electric motor and plans.
Is “affordable aircraft” an oxymoron? For most people, probably yes. One answer could be a class of aircraft I like to refer to as a PSA, or Personal Sport Aircraft.
Wings from the North Lift Many Trikes
I’ve been writing about very affordable aircraft•, specifically about Part 103 ultralight vehicles. I know some readers prefer speedier or fully enclosed aircraft. Those people are fortunate as many choices are available and, of course, I will continue writing about them frequently. However, many pilots in the USA and around the world do not have a budget for a magnificent carbon fiber personal aircraft that costs $150,000. Even among those who can afford such aircraft, I’m amazed at the renewed interest in these simplest of aircraft.
In addition, aircraft as shown in the nearby photos have seen considerable development since the early days of weight shift trikes. In my view, America invented these aircraft back in the late 1970s but as three axis ultralights developed, interest from American pilots drew away from weight shift and the best new ideas seemed to come from Europe, Australia or other countries. However, I now see the freshest developments coming from U.S.
Exciting Development Projects at Aero 2015
Aero is such an interesting event for many reasons. Among the most significant of these are the large number of aircraft introductions or the newest development projects one discovers in the vast gymnasium-sized halls … eleven of them in total. It can be hard to cover all the square meters, which although not as enormous as giant outdoor American shows, are nonetheless so packed with aircraft that one gets sensory overload before you’ve seen them all.
The world premiere of BlackWing was such a project. Here is the first light aircraft I’ve seen from Sweden; others may exist but I’m not aware of them. This sleek speedster uses the ubiquitous Rotax 912 to achieve what they state as stunning speeds up to 400 kilometers per hour (250 mph or 217 knots) and this from only 100 horsepower! Of course, this won’t work as a Light-Sport Aircraft but BlackWing is LSA in size and concept other than its blazing speed.
A Jet You Can Actually Afford!
Be honest with yourself. You always wanted to fly a jet, didn’t you? Having your very own jet to rocket around the sky would be so cool, right? C’mon … who wouldn’t love that? The trouble is affording one of the darn things and then paying through the nose to fuel and maintain it.
Well, the good folks at Sonex Aircraft have long prided themselves on (and have achieved the goal of) offering modestly priced airplane kits that the rest of us can afford. How about a jet airpane (kit) for less than many ready-to-fly LSA? Yep, Sonex says “base price” is $130,000 and while that may still be a chunk of change for many, you have to admit it is reasonably affordable as jets go.
Those of you planning to attend Sun ‘n Fun 2015 — and I hope that is many of you! — will be able to check out SubSonex JXS-2 Personal Jet and you can catch its first-ever airshow act.
Aeromobil, Now at Version 3.0, Nears Production
I have reported on Aeromobil before and we’ve tried to keep up with those MIT geniuses at Terrafugia and their Transition that basically reinvigorated the flying car or (as Terrafugia prefers) roadable airplane. However, saying Terrafugia reinvented the flying car is hardly fair to other producers, in this case Slovakia’s Stefan Klein. At the Pioneers Festival — an entrepreneurship and future tech event held in Vienna, Austria at the end of October 2014 — Klein and his financial associate Juraj Vaculik unveiled their latest iteration of Aeromobil, specifically model 3.0. Beside a public showing, he demonstrated its flight capabilities to the public for the first time. Think what you will of Aeromobil or Transition, or for that matter, Maverick, but these ventures continue to attract attention and sufficient funding that it’s likely we’ll see some in the sky one day.
Light Is Right In the Eyes of FAA and World CAAs
Evidently, a magic number exists to authorities in various civil aviation agencies around the developed world. That magic number — more correctly a range — is 115 to 120 kilograms, or 253 to 264 pounds. FAA led this charge way back in 1982 with the introduction of FAR Part 103 codifying that an airplane, ‘er … “ultralight vehicle” with an empty weight of 254 pounds — subject to certain exceptions for emergency airframe parachutes or float equipment — could be flown without three requirements common to all other aircraft. Part 103 vehicles• do not require registration (N-numbers); the pilots of these ultralights need no pilot certificate of any kind; nor do they need a medical. Such aircraft can be sold fully built, ready to fly. The entire regulation governing their use can be printed on the front and back of a single page of paper. This simply must be one of the most remarkable deregulatory efforts in all of aviation.
Airbus Goes Electric and Small (with Big Ideas)
As we all get packing for Oshkosh where we’ll see all manner of aircraft, one of the biggest manufacturers revealed one of the smallest airplanes at another airshow: Farnborough in England, an event dominated by military and airline producers. More surprisingly, Airbus announced at Farnborough that it would put into production their all-electric-powered E-Fan. Big aircraft, the buses of the sky, are good at moving people to their destination. However, they are very noisy and consume oceans of fuel leading to more pollution. Can this situation improve? Is it even reasonable to consider an electric-powered airliners? Some experts scoff at the idea but Airbus’ E-Fan made a powerful, if relatively quiet, statement.
Airbus’ E-fan made its first flight at a French airport near Bordeaux on March 11th this year. The project reportedly evolved from work with the tiniest airplane most AirVenture visitors have seen. Airbus used an electric-powered Cri-Cri as a test bed to develop their battery and energy management technology.
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