Air Shows & Events

Officials from Sun ‘n Fun and the Polk County (Fla.) School Board broke ground Thursday for a $7.5 million facility that will provide a new home for the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, an aviation-oriented high school/career academy already located on the Sun ‘n Fun campus. The 58,000-square-foot facility will house up to 500 high school […]

“The down economy has been good for Build A Plane,” founder Lyn Freeman said at Sun ‘n Fun on Thursday. “We’ve had a lot of donations.” The organization is now accepting airworthy aircraft as well as projects. And the demand continues to run ever higher, according to executive director Katrina Bradshaw. “We’ve started 200 projects […]

Every aviation event needs a few new dreamers who are putting it on the line to make the airplane of their imagination a reality, and at Sun ‘n Fun on Wednesday, those dreamers were John Meekins, president of Privateer Industries, and his director of marketing, Frank Leventhal. The two turned up in the press tent […]

SMA’s jet-A-burning general aviation piston engine has been around for more than seven years now, and its time has come, according to company president Luc Pelon. “We are ready, the market is ready, and the aviation industry is ready,” Pelon said Wednesday at Sun ‘n Fun. Earlier versions of the SMA engine have been flown […]

Avidyne will have an updated version of its Entegra Release 9 integrated flight deck avionics system in coming months and the new version, called Release 9.1, has some innovative features designed to aid in en route situational awareness. At a news conference at Sun ‘n Fun 2010, the company unveiled a feature called FMS Preview […]

“Calls and emails and interest are all picking up,” said Dan Johnson, chairman of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association at Sun ‘n Fun on Wednesday, “but sales are still very slow so far in 2010.” Like the rest of the industry, the LSA manufacturers saw a sales slump in 2009, though with a drop of […]

Jeff Skiles, best known as the guy in the right seat when US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson last year, is spending a few days this week at Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Fla., to share his story with thousands of aviation enthusiasts. Skiles flew for 24 years with the airline, and that […]

The rest of the aviation industry may still be struggling to recover from last year’s slump, but Aspen Avionics had a banner year in 2009. “We grew by 38 percent last year,” said CEO John Uczekaj at Sun ‘n Fun on Wednesday morning. “And we expect to keep that up, with 50 percent or so […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. Lightspeed Aviation is inviting customers and all pilots to help promote worthy aviation-related causes through its Lightspeed Aviation Foundation charitable program. Lightspeed has selected 20 non-profit aviation charities to be potential beneficiaries of […]

New at Sun ‘n Fun this year is Hawker Beechcraft’s latest iteration of the King Air, which has been in production in various forms since the 1960s. The 350i has no substantial upgrades in engines or avionics over the last version, but the cabin has had a total makeover that brings it up-to-the-moment for the […]