Interesting Airplanes

If a new airplane is a must, small-aircraft fractional ownership systems, like those from OurPLANE and AirShares, deserve a look. Depending on your flying habits, it could be cheaper in the long run. But as the editors of Aviation Consumer recently explained, put a sharp pencil on the numbers. This article appears in the June […]

Seems like everybody wants to strap a larger engine onto a successful aircraft design and call it “improved.” But when Cirrus Design was ready to develop a step-up model after its very successful SR20, they knew they wanted to do more than just add some horsepower. AVweb’s Dave Higdon shows that, while you might mistake […]

Thepreparation leading up to my first flight in a new aircraft design always renewsmy sense of adventure and stirs a bit of trepidation, as well. The promise ofsome new adventure, rooted in my hedonistic curiosity about airplanes, generallyoverwhelms any degree of anxiety attached to the coming flight. Nonetheless, arriving at the main gate of The […]

How frustrating this could be, my mind kept musing. Not three hours earlier the magnificent Three Sisters mountain peaks reached upward through clear skies toward the window seat of a Southwest 737 flying me to Portland International (PDX). No overcast blocked my view until we flew to about 40 miles south of PDX. But the […]

If Benjamin Braddock paid more attention to his future – and less to Mrs. Robinson- he might today hold an executive position at a young, new airplane company.All Ben, the central character in the classic film, “The Graduate,”had to do was heed that “one word” of advice he received during theopening reel of the movie: […]

I‘m often asked to sum up an airplane in one word. The problem is that most airplanes resist such a simple label. As a result, my responses usually trend toward “neat,” “cool” and “fast,” to “impressive,” “heavy” and “demanding” or to “slick,” “nimble” and “comfy.” Of course, these choices explain next to nothing about the […]

In many ways, watching Cirrus Design Corp. evolve into the two-model company it is today felt similar to watching a child mature from adolescence into adulthood. From its roots in the experimental community, Cirrus evolved from a niche airplane-kit maker into an advanced manufacturing firm. From serious airplanes for people with money and building ambitions, […]

Diamond’s New Star, the DA40: More than a Katana AllGrown Up Is it safe? That’s generally a good question to ask before any flight in the first of anything: The newer the program, the more daring the design, the more important the question. But rolling the prototype DA40 from base to final at the Plant […]

Over the years, my flying in the Florida has included introductions to dozens of ultralight and light experimental-amateur built designs … and the odd encounter with alligators. Now, imagine yourself in a big, open-cabin experimental airplane, cruising languidly about 500 feet above a mirror-still, algae-green lake outside Sebring, Fla., one known for yielding some awesome […]

Whither The Piston Twin? One of the categories conspicuously missing from the raft of revived production aircraft in recent years is the piston-powered twin-engine airplane. Sure, New Piper is selling Seminoles and Senecas to flight schools and charter operators, while Raytheon still offers the Baron 58 series, but only in a normally aspirated, non-pressurized version. […]