The Worm Turns!

How many times have we heard it said of light sport aircraft? "Oh. They might sell a few, but they’ll never have any effect on real aviation." "They’ll never amount to anything on my airport." "I mean, like, for crying out loud, don’t they have snowmobile engines in those things?" The worm has turned. Cessna showed up at Oshkosh last week with an LSA with a Rotax engine. True, it was a "proof-of-concept" airplane. Even if, as seems likely, it goes into production there is no guarantee that the final version will have a Rotax engine. Makes no difference. Cessna—the 800-pound gorilla—has an LSA with a Rotax engine. Cessna is taking LSA seriously. The world will never be the same again. The interesting thing is that Cessna (according to my inside source at Cessna) doesn’t see LSA as just a toy airplane for old pilots with no medical. Cessna sees this as the potential training aircraft of the future. As—thank goodness and at long last—a less expensive entry aircraft. As the first step for pilots who will upgrade to bigger, better, and more expensive airplanes just as pilots have for lo these many years. In short, Cessna hopes LSA will replace the ubiquitous—and old—Cessna 150/152. Makes sense to me. These little LSA cost less, burn less fuel, and leap tall buildings. The cabins are often wider, they carry more weight, visibility is better, and they are beautiful. If any aircraft can put the excitement back into primary training, LSA might. Pay attention, folks. These may well be the pioneering years that we will be talking about for decades to come!  We'd love to post your comments. Please click on the comment box at the top.