LSA

A consortium of some 35 minority Icon Aircraft shareholders has filed suit to block what it says is illegal transfer of technology to China by majority shareholder Pudong Science and Technology Investment Inc. (PDSTI). The minority group includes former Icon board member and former Boeing CEO Phil Condit, as well as Kirk Hawkins, former Icon […]

The former bassist for the German heavy-metal band Metalium was killed Sunday, April 18, in the crash of his ultralight trike in Spain. The accident occurred around 10 a.m. local time in Mallorca, where Lars “Ratz” Ranzenberger, the 53-year-old musician-turned-entrepreneur, had lived for several years, according to a local news source. Photos and video show […]

Terrafugia announced on Tuesday that it has obtained a Special Light-Sport Aircraft (SLSA) airworthiness certificate from the FAA for its Transition roadable aircraft. While designed to meet both FAA and National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) safety standards, the initial version of the Transition is a flight-only model. Terrafugia says intends to produce and […]

Earlier this year, Texas Aircraft updated its Colt LSA with a comprehensive Garmin avionics suite, and now it’s going the other way, with a simpler, less expensive Garmin setup for VFR flight. Priced at $139,900, the latest Colt configuration has a single-screen Garmin G3X Touch display, external com radio and remotely mounted ADS-B-compliant transponder. Texas […]

ICON Aircraft, which produces the A5 amphibious light sport aircraft (LSA), announced on Friday that it has named Jason Huang its new president. According to the company, Huang will oversee all business functions with a focus on “maintaining manufacturing excellence, product development and innovation and providing an ownership experience that is second to none.” The […]

Texas Aircraft Manufacturing announced that it has delivered its first Colt-SL S-LSA. The aircraft went to University of Florida nuclear engineering student Richard Youschak of Gainesville, Florida, and featured a University of Florida “Gator”-inspired orange and blue paint scheme. Texas Aircraft introduced the Colt at AirVenture 2019. “I cannot express how happy and proud I […]

Stung by the trade war with China that’s dried up investment capital, light sport manufacturer Icon said Friday that it’s reducing its workforce by 40 percent and cutting production to fewer than five airplanes a month. COO Thomas Wieners said in a conference call Friday afternoon that the workforce will decline from 650 workers to […]

Icon Aircraft is celebrating the “significant milestone” of building its 100th airplane and predicting a bright if somewhat more restrained future for the stylish little amphib than the original marketing hype laid out. “It took us longer than anticipated to get here, but this is just the beginning,” said President and COO Thomas Wieners. “We […]

AirVenture 2019 may be cheek-by-jowl with spiffy little two-seat LSAs, but four years from now, sport airplanes with four seats might just be a thing, according to Dan Johnson of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. In this podcast recorded Sunday at Oshkosh, Johnson said the FAA is beyond the talking stage. “They are moving on […]

The first airplane some new Air Force pilots will fly might be a Pipistrel Alpha trainer. The first cohort of 20 potential pilots, all of them either about to become USAF officers or freshly commissioned, completed a course that led to 17 them soloing the light sport aircraft. The new program, called the Aviation-Character-Education (ACE) […]