The year started with hope. As 2022 arrived, America and most countries (China excepted) were emerging from two years of difficult lockdowns and Covid. The good news was that a flood of money from the U.S. government had buoyed the stock market and I’ve long observed that in a rising equities market, LSA and SP kit aircraft sell well.
No one thinks this is because anyone sells stock to buy a Light-Sport Aircraft. Rather, it’s something economists call the “wealth effect,” where rising asset values give stockholders confidence that good times are here and they can buy an airplane to have fun.
Then… Russia invaded Ukraine and global markets trembled.
Despite a year of war, of plunging stock markets and sky-high energy prices, of protests and riots in multiple countries, plus on-going supply chain strains and lingering Covid fears, the light aircraft nonetheless grew by a very healthy 18%, after rising 10% in 2021.
LSA and Sport Pilot Kits Offer Aircraft Your Way: Factory-Built or Kit-Built
Barely after we rang in the new year, here’s a review of 2021 market shares and info regarding the state of the light, recreational aircraft industry. After a surprisingly strong 2020 despite Covid, 2021 returned to Earth a bit but with some shifting between categories. This year the contrast that stood out was between Factory-Built and Kit-Built.
In 2020, perhaps because builders were locked down at home and completed more projects, kit registrations blew the doors off factory-built. For 2021, the ratio equalized again with kits narrowly edging out factory-built (nearby chart).
Note that for this reporting, datastician Steve Beste said, “We define kit-built as aircraft registered as Experimental Amateur Built. Factory-built are everything else, including SLSA, ELSA, Exhibition, Primary, and Standard.” To understand how Steve solves the FAA database mysteries, check this PDF.
How Healthy Is the Market?
Generally speaking, the leaders from 2019 and 2020 remain in similar positions for 2021 — the second year everyone endured the virus pandemic.
Beyond AirVenture — Light Aviation Globally and Circumnavigating the Globe by Shark (LSA)
For a week last month, the center of the aviation universe was headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin — population around 50,000 until AirVenture brings in five times that many on the biggest days.
AirVenture Oshkosh is arguably the most important aviation event in the world each year, bringing people together from all points on the compass… or, at least it usually does.
For 2021, international representation was far below the usual. I don’t have hard numbers but few of my overseas airshow friends could make this year’s event.
Internationally-Speaking
Despite the lack of international visitors EAA AirVenture Oshkosh afforded a large helping of personal contacts and conversations. Even in the age of Zoom and Skype, Facebook and Twitter, websites and YouTube channels, meeting in-person retains immense value, both personally and professionally. My article about the FAA “pivot” reported one of those fortunate meetings; same for the XE Part 103 helicopter resulting in our most-read Oshkosh 2021 article.
2020 Is History — How Did Light Aircraft Fare in this Year of Fear?
Everyone knows 2020 was arguably the most unusual year in anyone’s recollection. In such a time of global upheaval, how did the light aircraft industry fare?
This report took a bit more time as the effort to begin counting Part 103 ultralights altered our view of the FAA aircraft registration data. Most of you may prefer this simpler report, but the data hounds among readers can drill all the way down to the last aircraft on Tableau Public.
As always, my sincerest thanks goes to our premier datastician Steve Beste. His work is the primary resource for this report. While I deeply appreciated the work done for years by former data guy (and personal friend), Jan Fridrich, Steve’s career in databases gave him skills that few others possess. Since he’s also “one of us” — a trike owner and pilot — Steve understands what we hope to achieve better than data experts outside affordable aviation.
Up or Down? How Flies the Light Aircraft Industry in this Strange Year?
By any measure 2020 has been an unusual year. While millions were thrown out of work by lockdowns to prevent the virus from spreading, we all read or hear that plenty of other workers can work from home or have businesses that cannot be restricted by government decrees.
In this context, how might the aviation industry be holding up? We read — and some brave travelers have experienced first-hand — how the airline industry is in a deep hole, prompting large layoffs.
In this third quarter report for the calendar year, I’ll look at some numbers for general aviation manufacturers as well as the light aviation industry that has my full focus.
The short answer: some are doing surprisingly well.
Light-Sport Aircraft
Before I launch into an analysis, I must extend grateful thanks to Datastician Extraordinaire, Steve Beste, who does such a comprehensive job compiling and demystifying data from FAA’s aircraft registration database.
Kit Aircraft Are Up; New Sales Are Off — Recreational Aviation Copes with Covid
Our fastest-with-the-mostest partner tracks the health and performance of the light aircraft industry and is once again punctual. Datastician Steve Beste has proven his capabilities to collect the registration data quickly, accurately, and with an insider’s viewpoint. Steve is a trike pilot, so he is “one of us.” In his former life he was a database expert in the tech field explaining his great facility with these systems.
Here we are reporting facts for the period of April, May, and June 2020. Given the spectacular upheaval around the world, I’m happy to see the recreational aircraft industry holding its own fairly well. Reporting for the companies making larger, heavier aircraft, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association also reported sales are down. I cannot imagine anyone is surprised.
If I was reporting numbers for the restaurant, bar, hotel, airline, theater, sports, or concert industries it would be an ugly bloodbath. This report is far less glum and beaten-down than those enterprises.
FAA’s Proposed Regulation (MOSAIC) — LAMA’s Spring 2020 Update Report
In recent months many light aviation enthusiasts have been asking about progress on FAA’s proposed rewrite of the Light-Sport Aircraft regulations. Following a lengthy teleconference in 2019, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association is pleased to provide a further update for the agency’s work on MOSAIC, or Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification. Here is our earlier article on this subject.
This update is one of a continuing series. As time passes and FAA progresses toward its goal — of issuing a NPRM, Notice of Proposed Rule Making — LAMA requests a teleconference or in-person visit to learn the rule writers’ latest concepts and language decisions.
This progress reports identifies new discoveries and clarifies previous statements that may now be better understood.
Some Key Messages
FAA is moving forward on the rulemaking project yet everything remains in progress while the agency gathers internal assessments. What follows is as accurate as possible at this time but changes will occur.
Full-2019 Market Share Report for Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot Kit Aircraft
We have a new year upon us. With our new reporting capabilities for LSA and SP kit market shares, we can now quickly report results from 2019.
A huge thanks to our supreme “datastician,” Steve Beste for making such swift and accurate reporting possible. I assure you that I’ve looked high and low for every year LSA have existed to find no comparable information.
As always, be advised that our data comes from FAA’s aircraft registration database. That means it is impartial — hopefully meaning reliable and dependable — but it also means some massaging of the information is needed to be completely accurate. (See this article for more detail on the effort involved; it is not trivial.) Steve’s valuable ability to manipulate database resources combines with his knowledge of light aircraft to make an unbeatable combination.
As much as any data allows — and as the saying goes… “you can take this info to the bank.” It’s solid!
What’s Happening in Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot Kits? Here’s Our 3Q19 Update.
This website seeks to offer a reliable source of market information for Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kit aircraft as a service to the light aircraft sector.
If you follow light aviation intently as many readers do, knowing what aircraft and subgroups (within LSA and SP kits*) are thriving or stumbling can be of great interest. Thanks to our fantastic “datastician,” Steve Beste, we know more now than we’ve ever known about aviation’s recreational aircraft segment. You simply cannot find this information anywhere else.
With Steve’s superb help, following are a few stories within the numbers. If you don’t care about market shares and just want to hear about aircraft, we won’t keep you waiting long. However, for many, these figures are quite valuable and this is the only place you will find them. Let’s dive in…
2019 Is a Good Year (so far)
We’re only three quarters through the year but extrapolating from the first three quarters and assuming a steady pace (which is not a guarantee, of course), we see that all of 2019 should result in 724 new aircraft registrations in the light aircraft sector defined (by us) as Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kit-built aircraft.
Latest Update on FAA’s Plan to Change Light-Sport Aircraft Regulations — July 2019
Many have asked about progress on FAA’s proposed rewrite of the Light-Sport Aircraft regulations. Following a lengthy teleconference at the end of June 2019, LAMA, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association, provided another update.
The update to industry covered a lot of ground but here we’ve tried to make it a quicker read.
Two key points: First, FAA is in the early stages of this rulemaking; at least minor changes are certain. FAA itself does not know all the specific details of the proposed rule at this time.
Secondly, the steps reported here come from actual rule writers but their effort has support from top FAA leadership. Driven by a Congressional mandate we know this will go forward.
LSA Is a Success Story
For 15 years Light-Sport Aircraft and their producers have proven themselves, LAMA argued. FAA concurred; the agency has often referred to the safety record as “acceptable,” reasonably high praise from regulators.