The new KLA-100 — quietly in development for two years — made its first flight a few days before AERO 2017 and was unveiled at the show. “The first flight was performed in Sumperk, Czech Republic, in late March with test pilot Richard Ponizil at the controls. Since that time the plane has made seven more flights and […]
LSA
Fully manufactured LSA and IFR
ASTM’s F37 committee is composed of people with technical knowledge who achieved a challenging task: Start with a blank sheet of paper and create aircraft standards for the Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) sector. That this group did so in just a few years on the leanest of budgets is a credit to their dedication. These volunteers from […]
Bearhawk LSAs make first flights
Officials at Bearhawk Aircraft report the first flights of two Bearhawk Light-Sport Aircraft built by customers from Quick-Build kits. Owner/builders Bruce McElhoe of California and Bob Way of Alabama completed, certified and flew their Bearhawk LSAs, the first two completions, in November 2016. The Bearhawk LSA was designed, built and tested by Bob Barrows, maker […]
ICON to build facility in Tijuana
ICON Aircraft has revealed plans to build a new facility in Tijuana, Mexico, where it will produce composite airframe components for the A5. As part of a revised production plan announced in May, the company decided to produce its own composite components, a manufacturing process that was previously outsourced to several suppliers, company officials explained. The […]
Titan-powered Kitfox makes first flight
HOMEDALE, Idaho – Kitfox Aircraft hung a 180-horsepower Titan X340 engine on an airframe and took it flying the first week of January. “Flight testing is partially complete, but so far we are seeing massive climb performance,” reported Kitfox on its Facebook page. “We are seeing numbers at 2500 fpm cruise climb and are hoping for […]
Flight Design passes FAA audit
Light-Sport Aircraft manufacturer Flight Design reports that an FAA audit was closed successfully in late 2015. The three-day audit was conducted at the Flight Design headquarters facility in Kamenz, Germany, by a team of three auditors from different sections of the FAA. “Given our goal to ensure the highest quality aircraft meeting customer safety requirements and government […]
Global growth phenomenon
Now that 2015 has entered the history books, we will slowly begin to see statistics for the year. My guess is that most aviation media will completely miss one of the big picture perspectives. This oversight does not represent a knowledge failure, but instead reflects a U.S-centric focus on general aviation. In the world of […]
Flying Icon’s A5 LSA seaplane
The Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) sector is aviation’s newest and most prolific with numerous outstanding aircraft available from Europe and the United States. Europeans seemed to own the category at first because regulations on the other side of the Atlantic permitted companies to fully build very similar aircraft. When the FAA caught up by releasing the […]
Making aviation affordable and fun
It is no surprise to anyone that aviation has become expensive. Some four-seat, single-engine airplanes retail for nearly $1 million! Those airplanes are fast, comfortable, and superbly equipped, but at those prices few pilots have a large enough budget to allow for purchase of a new aircraft. The great news is that not all airplanes are […]