Aircraft

Super Legend: Lycoming O-233 Debut

Other than having wings, an engine and a tall sticker price, certified and light sport airplanes don’t have much in common save one thing: People who buy both will pay for higher performance. And that’s the idea behind the new Lycoming O-233-powered Super Legend.After a fashion, the Super Legend is to the standard Legend as the Super Cub is to a J-3. The Super Legend is based on Piper’s venerable PA-18 and, according to Legend’s Darin Hart, some of the parts are directly interchangeable. (That’s true of the O-200 Legend, too.) With the Super Legend, American Legend is going after that strata of the market to whom performance, features and cache matter more than price. That turns out to be the dominant share of buyers, according to LSA market summaries. When we visited Legend’s Sulphur Springs, Texas factory in late August, it was in the final stages of LSA approval for the Super Legend. Hart told us despite the higher price tag, every other buyer is opting for the Lycoming version over the Continental O-200 model. In this report, we’ll take a look at how the O-233 (and flaps) transforms the Legend airframe.

Paul Bertorelli
Verified

Other than having wings, an engine and a tall sticker price, certified and light sport airplanes don’t have much in common save one thing: People who buy both will pay for higher performance. And that’s the idea behind the new Lycoming O-233-powered Super Legend.

After a fashion, the Super Legend is to the standard Legend as the Super Cub is to a J-3. The Super Legend is based on Piper’s venerable PA-18 and, according to Legend’s Darin Hart, some of the parts are directly interchangeable. (That’s true of the O-200 Legend, too.)

Paul Bertorelli

Paul Bertorelli is Aviation Consumer’s Editor at Large. In addition to his valued contributions to Aviation Consumer, his in-depth video productions on sister publication AVweb cover a wide variety of topics that greatly contribute to safety, operation and aircraft ownership. When Paul isn’t writing or filming, he’s out flying his J3 Cub.