The Year Saw Its Share Of Innovation, But Some Companies Couldn't Last

There was innovation in the world of sport avation in 2010, from electric aircraft and jet gliders to new avionics that put the LSA and homebuilt market on a par with some of the big boys. But there was also tragedy, and the economy spelled the end to a few companies doing interesting things at this end of the aviation spectrum. Here are just some of the sport aviation stories covered by ANN in 2010.

January

• Less than a year after announcing it would be returning its float production to North America, Zenair Ltd has began deliveries of its light-weight all-aluminum floats.
• American Legend Aircraft Company delivered the first Legend AmphibCub-an amphibious float-equipped Legend Cub certified as a light-sport aircraft. The AmphibCub was completed and delivered to a customer in South Florida.

Legend Cub On Floats

• The first lubricant developed specifically for use in two stroke aviation engines, AeroShell Oil Sport PLUS 2, was introduced by Shell Aviation at the US Sport Aviation Expo at Sebring.
• Belite Aircraft unveiled two new versions based on its existing Belite '254' FAR Part 103 compliant ultralight aircraft at the annual US Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida.
• Garmin announced details for G3X engine information system (EIS) and integrated autopilot interface. The units are designed specifically for the G3X and are an affordable way for experimental and light sport aircraft (LSA) pilots to bring Garmin integration and quality into their cockpit.
• Piper took the wraps off its all-new PiperSport. Piper said its entry into the Light Sport Aviation segment speaks to Piper's heritage in bringing seminal, entry-level airplanes to market while offering features and performance normally found in more expensive, high-end aircraft.

February

• The FAA decided to withdraw several of its proposed changes to the sport pilot and sport pilot instructor regulations following comments made on the NPRM issued in 2009.
• Skydiving centers across the country found an unusual way to contribute to the Haiti relief effort - by using skydiving aircraft to transport food and medical supplies to the island.
• Jim Bridenstine, Executive Director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium (TASM), announced the first-ever QuikTrip Air and Rocket Racing Show, and a new partnership with the Rocket Racing League.
• WACO Classic Aircraft says it has produced a first for single engine General Aviation; an all glass panel aircraft, the WACO YMF open cockpit biplane. This plane is completely without a single round or analog gauge.

WACO Glass Cockpit

• The Aircraft Factory, the South African company which is developing the Sling LSA, said that ZU-TAF, the aircraft in which company owners Mike Blyth and James Pitman circumnavigated the globe during 2009, went down in the ocean while conducting spin testing just off the South African Kwa-Zulu Natal coast. Both pilots bailed out safely. 
• The FAA released its report concerning the Zodiac CH 601 XL and CH 650 aircraft, which suffered several in-flight failures but which could not be traced to any single root cause. The FAA suspended new airworthiness approvals of both models of the aircraft in November of 2009.

March

• Skydiving gear manufacturers from around the world organized the first ever Skydive Expo, held March 11-14, 2010 at DeLand Municipal Airport (KDED) northeast of Orlando, FL.
• Rocket Racing League (RRL) said test flights were conducted at the North Texas Regional Airport (NTRA), marking the first time in history where two private-sector manned rocket-powered vehicles were flown sequentially in the same day by one crew with common ground support equipment in the same airspace.
• Flight Design introduced the CTLS Lite, which the company said substantially raised payload while lowering the airplane's price.
• Norman Surplus departed Larne Borough Council Sandy Bay Playing Fields in his yellow MT03 - an open-cockpit tandem gyroplane - to begin a trip around the world that was planned to take him until well into the summer.

Norman Surplus MT03 Gyroplane

• The first Sirius SLSA from TL Ultralight became available to fly. SportairUSA, LC, the North American distributor for the Sirius and the Sting S3, offered introductory flights at the North Little Rock, Arkansas, Municipal Airport (KORK).

April

• Red Bull Air Race World Championship pilot, Kirby Chambliss, returned to the Detroit Riverfront to announce a contest for local children to put their artistic talent on display.
• LoPresti Aviation announced Tuesday that RJ Siegel would take the helm as Chief Executive Officer at the new LoPresti offices in Sebastian, Florida.
• PS Engineering introduced an Experimental Audio Panel line. PS Engineering says the PMA5000EX achieves a new level of price/performance for the homebuilder.
• Hartzell Propeller developed an advanced structural composite propeller for aerobatic aircraft using its proprietary ASC-II technology. The Claw 2.0 propeller has recently achieved FAA type certification, meeting all of the propeller certification requirements.
• Garmin confirmed that it would soon be including synthetic vision in the G300 and G3X. The G300 and G3X’s synthetic vision, SVX, is specifically for experimental and light sport aircraft.
• Piper Aircraft President and CEO Kevin J. Gould handed over the keys to the very first PiperSport light-sport aircraft to three veteran pilots.

First Piper Sport Delivery

• Both Garmin and EAA President Tom Poberezny confirmed reports of the EAA leader's nomination for a Director's slot on the board of Garmin Ltd.

May

• On the one-hundredth anniversary of the first flight of an airplane in Switzerland, a pair of European pilots departed an airport in Sion, Switzerland intending to follow a carefully-designed route around the planet flying virtually identical Flight Design CTLS aircraft as part of a team for the circumnavigation attempt.
• The pilot of a kit-built jet successfully made an emergency landing just short of the runway at Loveland, Colorado after the plane's engine "blew up" in flight, causing the airplane to lose at least a portion of one wing.
• A four-person FAA National Kit Evaluation Team (NKET) concluded its two day visit to Zenith Aircraft Company in Mexico, Missouri Wednesday. The team was sent to determine whether the STOL CH 750 aircraft kit will officially allow an amateur-builder to meet the "major portion" (or "51% percent") requirement.
• An e-mail from Sadler Aircraft VP David Littlejohn said that "the economic downturn in aviation has taken its toll on the Vampire," and that "the project is being suspended and offered for sale."

Vampire LSA

• There was a lot of head-scratching going on over the online auction of Quartz Mountain Aerospace/Luscombe Aircraft Corporation.
• An experimental amateur-built Vans RV-10, N110TD, was destroyed during an explosion after landing at Ridgeland Airport (3J1), Ridgeland, South Carolina.

June

• European scientists studied the eruption and ash plume from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland with a tool that you might not expect ... a specially equipped Flight Design CT Supralite.
• A 36-year-old North Carolina man made an unusual crossing of the English Channel. He suspended himself in a specially-equipped chair under a massive and colorful cluster of helium balloons and drifted across the channel.

• CubCrafters has received a new STC for their part-23 certified Top Cub allowing auto fuel to be used in the airplane.
• Albuquerque-based Desert Aerospace, LLC has taken a piece of each end of the aviation spectrum and married them in a single aircraft. The company announced the completion of certification tests flights of the new TST-14J 'BonusJet' two seat, self-launching sailplane.
• An incident during the testing of John Monnett's single-engine sport jet program caused him to go back to the drawing board.  An initial NTSB accident summary indicates that the prototype "Landed In The Grass Short Of The Runway, Oshkosh, WI."
• The Cessna Model 162 Skycatcher was named winner of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Piper General Aviation Award for 2010. 
• Pipstrel, a Slovenian aircraft builder, introduced the Taurus LSA, which is said is the first ever high-performance two-seat self-launching glider with all of the advantages of the LSA category.
• Terrafugia received an exemption from the FAA to allow the Transition Roadable Aircraft, or "Flying Car", a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 1430 pounds (650 kg). 

Terrafugia Transition Aircraft

• Two pilots flying twin Flight Design CTs returned home to Sion, Switzerland after completing a circumnavigation in the LSAs. 
• Rotax completed compliance with the ASTM F2339 standards for the Type 503 engine, which was no small task given the age of the design and the complexity of the standard.

July

• Gretchen Jahn was appointed Chief Operating Officer for Remos Aircraft, the company announced Wednesday. Ms. Jahn brings to Remos over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience in manufacturing, IT and aviation leadership.
• The first G3X-equipped Legend Smart Cub was delivered to a customer in Massachusetts, by the American Legend Aircraft Company.
• The cancellation of the Red Bull Air Race in Budapest,  due to lengthy delays in the permissions process, turned out to be a bed omen for the series. It later announced a one-year hiatus from racing while the sport reorganizes and looks at safety improvements to the aircraft.
• The FCC authorized NavWorx ADS600-B Transceiver. Introduced in April, the ADS600-B incorporates both transmit and receive capabilities of an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) and is designed to meet FAA TSO-C154c and targeted to the LSA/Homebuilt market.
• Two skydivers, both with hundreds of jumps to their credit, died after they collided in mid-air about 100 feet above the ground and their parachutes became entangled.
• While much of the news from Oshkosh was about the weather ... torrential rains flooded both airplane parking and camping areas causing EAA to scramble to make alternate arrangements ... one of the major stories to come out of the show this year was the announcement that Rod Hightower would succeed him as President of the organization.

Sloshkosh

• Zenith Aircraft Company announced a design gross weight increase for the STOL CH 750 aircraft design. The aircraft design gross weight has been increased from 1,320 lbs. to 1,440 lbs., adding significantly to the load carrying capability of the “light sport utility” aircraft first introduced at AirVenture in July 2008.
• EAA Young Eagles are now able to stay connected to the aviation world and enjoy a variety of benefits at no cost through the EAA Student Membership supported by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

August

• Norman Surplus re-started his attempt to be the first to fly an gyrocopter around the globe and achieve a world record.
• Britain's Paul Bonhomme won the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship by taking second place behind Austria's Hannes Arch in the final race of the season at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany.
• The Popular Rotorcraft Association's convention wrapped up with an awards banquet in Mentone, Indiana, and got a noteworthy commitment from Dr. Bruce Charnov, a professor emeritus from Hofstra University who has richly documented the history of the autogyro dating back to the early development by Juan de la Cierva in the 1920s.
• Michael Combs toured the country just a few years after being seriously ill, and he did it in an LSA.

Michael Combs

• The EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, WI, again earned accreditation from the American Association of Museums, recognizing its commitment to excellence and high professional standards.

September

• Dallas-based IndUS Aviation continued to move forward with Dr. Yuanyang Gao, representing the Chinese city of Weinan and Mr. Ning An, president of China's IPI Information Technology to move production of the Thorpedo Light Sport Aircraft to the new LuYangHu General Aviation Development Zone in Weinan, China.

Thorpedo LSA

• A somewhat disjointed attempt to become 'the first gyrocopter flight around the world' was put on hold, again, because of anticipated extreme weather in the Bearing Sea and North Atlantic.
• The Executive Director of Sebring Regional Airport (KSEF) asked the Highlands County, FL Tourist Development Council for a grant to bring FAA controllers to the airport for 2011 U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in January.
• The Terrafugia Transition Roadable Aircraft ... or "Flying Car" ... moved a step closer to a garage near you, as the company began setting up for for low-volume production in a 19,000 sq. ft. facility in Woburn, MA.
• If you've ever wondered what it might be like to compete in the Reno Air Races, this may be the closest thing to getting into the cockpit. 3D Entertainment Films said it will be producing "Air Racers 3D: Forces of Flight" alongside the film's original partners, Pretend Entertainment and Stereoscope.
• A balloon flying in the Gordon Bennett race designated USA2, registration N801NM, went missing. The pilots listed on board have been identified as American citizens, Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis.
• The first 'Flying Car (LSA)' received a green light from the FAA to begin production. The Orlando office of the FAA issued an historic Special Light Sport Aircraft airworthiness certificate to Itec, a Central Florida Christian Non-Profit humanitarian organization, for their unique land, air, water and snow capable vehicle.

October

• Infinity Entertainment Inc. and PSD-International joined forces to bring the Turbine Toucan, the highest performance biplane in history, to the virtual world.
• Flying his Glasair III at the 2010 National Championship Air Races in Stead, Nevada, Jeff Lavelle set a blistering new Sport Class qualifying record, setting the bar up at 362.481 MPH.
• Reports indicated that the first America's Challenge Gas Balloon to land did so because it was shot at by someone as it flew at about 800' AGL over Texas.

• The final balloon aloft in the America’s Challenge distance race for gas balloons landed safely on the U.S./Canadian border. Albuquerque’s Barbara Fricke and Peter Cuneo flew 1,350 miles (2,173 km) in approximately 57 hours and 30 minutes.

November

• Legal wranglings caused plans for the so-called "Space Dive" attempt to be shelved, after promoter Daniel Hogan filed a suit in April, saying Red Bull had stolen plans for the stunt which he says he pitched to the company in 2004.
• A woman involved in a romantic triangle was found guilty of murder in Belgium for rigging her rival's parachute to fail.
• When residents of Talkeetna, Alaska learned of a proposed new Build A Plane program where local high school students combine classroom learning with hands-on efforts to build a real airplane, word spread through the town immediately.
• The Chairman of the US Sport Aviation Expo, which is set for January 20-23, at Sebring Regional Airport in central Florida, said that exhibitor response seems as good as or better than in years past.
• The Skycatcher seemed to be catching on. The company says that production of the 162 Skycatcher has continued to grow through 2010, with the 50th aircraft on its way this week to the U.S. reassembly facility and more expected to be shipped by the end of the year.

• CubCrafters added two Certified Build Centers: Zero Gravity Builders Studio, of Richland, WA, and The CubWorks, of Lewistown, MT, to their Certified Build Center network.

December

• Sonex Aircraft said their E-Flight Initiative proof-of-concept electric-powered Waiex aircraft achieved its first flight at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, WI.

• The bodies of Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis were recovered off the coast of Italy, according to a port official with the Vieste port in Italy.
• EAA AirVenture 2011 will salute Burt Rutan with a special day of recognition along with dedicated programs and attractions.
• Terry Small of Prescott, AZ became the 1,000th customer to complete and fly an RV-7. His first flight brought the total number of RVs complete and flown to 7088.

FMI: www.aero-news.net