Flight Design Cites Class Win In Morane-Saulnier In Touting Efficiency

The original Morane-Saulnier Paris-to-Madrid Air Race in 1911 was a daredevil sport for competitors, and just finishing the race was considered an ambitious goal. The centennial was observed with the "Paris-Madrid Green Air Challenge," seeing not just who could finish and how fast, but how efficiently and quietly the planes could fly.

Competitors ranged from high-tech composite motorgliders to a Cessna 150. As ANN reported, Pipistrel finished first and third with glider-derived designs, but Flight Design is hailing its second-place overall finish, and first-place finish in the Airplane class, as evidence of the superiority of the design of its popular CTLS.

Tom Peghiny, president of Flight Design USA, commented, "Our CTLS Light-Sport Aircraft proved its top-of-class efficiency, winning Airplane class in this four-leg, 768-mile race. We have strived to portray our performance results honestly and we can do so precisely because CTLS performs so well. CTLS is an intelligent design that works in real-world flying."

Not everyone thinks of an LSA as a first choice for international flights, but the CTLS is a very capable aircraft, especially compared to the craft entered in the original event. In the 1911 Morane-Saulnier Paris-Madrid race, 21 teams entered, but only six were able to depart at race  ime. The winner, Jules Védrines, was also the only pilot to finish the race, which he did in fifteen hours, for an average speed of about 51 MPH.

FMI: www.flightdesign.com