Lisa Aeronautics has started flying the second-generation prototype of its sleek Akoya, a multi-surface, would-be LSA. The Akoya is designed to take off and land on runways, water or snow. The most visible change to the new airplane, PS1—for Pre-Series 1, replacing the Pre-Series 0 aircraft—is in the seafoils, which are two canard-like wings extending downward near the cockpit for water stability. In PS0, the seafoils were canted significantly down, but Lisa’s pilots found the long landing gear required to keep the seafoils away from the runway excessively reduced forward visibility on the ground. The Akoya has a traditional, tailwheel landing-gear configuration. The new seafoils are essentially level, which allowed Lisa to shorten the landing gear on PS1 for visibility similar to a tricycle-gear aircraft.
Lisa plans to seek approval to sell the Akoya in the United States as a light-sport amphibian with a maximum takeoff weight of 1430 pounds and a useful load of about 550 pounds. Marketing Manager Vanessa Troillard says the basic empty weight of the PS1 is 900 pounds, which leaves around 20 pounds to be trimmed in order to meet their useful load target. The fifteen-person French company hopes to launch production next year, with U.S. approval to follow in 2019.
UPDATED: A previous version of this article incorrected stated the empty weight of PS1 as 990 pounds. It is 900 pounds.
