New Aircraft

Picking up where American General left off, Tiger LLC builds a sporty if not blisteringly fast cruiser at an affordable price.

How one mans quest actually made sense out of buying a new airplane…in a qualified sort of way.

Its faster, heavier and carries more than the SR20. What it really needs is a turbine and deicing.

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The success of the homebuilt market has demonstrated how far many owners are willing to go to have an affordable sportplane. Walk the flightline at OSH and there’s a veritable fleet of Glasairs and Lancairs, more than a few built by hired guns retained by well-heeled owners.

Sensing a market, some successful kitplane makers have eyed the production market warily, realizing there’s a bumpy road between concept and certification. Both Cirrus and Lancair have negotiated this difficult path. The latest company to complete the kit-to-certification task is W.D. Flugzeugleichtbau, GMBH of Germany. They hope to fill the missing link between experimental and production with the intr…

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When Diamond Aircrafts snazzy little Katana emerged into the flight training scene three years ago, it seemed an easy set-up for a bloody nose or two.

Way too small, some said.

A plastic airplane? Are you kiddin? That thing wont last a month on the training line.

No way Im instructing in any airplane with a chainsaw engine.

While that carping may have some merit, the Katana has nonetheless established itself as the leading-edge trainer for the 1990s, with some 300 airframes toiling away at flight schools across the country. That Diamond has the new trainer market virtually to itself doesnt hurt. But the fact remains, the Katana seems to be delivering on…

[IMGCAP(1)]The Arrow and Archer are dead. Some Mooneys may have to go on life support. The Socata singles are soon to be driven from the market.

Now that Cirrus design is delivering its new composite SR20, some people are actually beginning to believe that. Allowing for the usual level of hype surrounding any new airplane, our guess is there’s more than a shard of truth to the claims. The SR20 looks good on paper, flies we’ll and, most important, its in production.

If Cirrus makes it through the first year of production without major disasters, continues to deliver airplanes and develops a support organization, were hard pressed to see why anyone would see much value in any other air…

[IMGCAP(1)]If Hollywood and the music industry can dust off antique works and package them as new, some are asking why it cant be done by aircraft manufacturers. In a sense, Cessna has already proved the point with the new 172 and 182.

Three more airplanes are poised to take on the market for two-seat certified sport planes with significant cross-country potential. All are taildraggers that boast sticks instead of yokes. All are capable of positive aerobatic maneuvers and feature a military-like glass canopy. And all owe their roots to designs more than half a century old, making their antecedents ancient even by Cessna standards.

With three such offerings-actually a fourth if you co…

[IMGCAP(1)]The twilight of the aviation gods seemed at hand in the 1980s when single-engine manufacturers put themselves into an almost unrecoverable spin. On the way down, experts blamed everything from high fuel prices to product liability. But in the end, it was the product line that augured in, leaving buyers to mourn.

Today, the GA rebound seems real and Cessna again sits on aviation Olympus, with a comfortable lead in the single-engine piston market. Capitalizing on their success with the 172 and 182 rebirths, Cessna has re-introduced the heavy haulers, the 206 Stationair and TurboStationair. Well examine both and fly the Turbo.

No Glamour Here
Stationairs, new o…

[IMGCAP(1)]Is it about to get ugly out there?

Were talking about competition in the four-place, high-performance single-engine market, which has essentially been owned by Mooney for most of the last decade.

With Beechcraft concentrating on six-placers, Cessna in hibernation until recently, Piper mostly building Malibus and Saratogas, Commander dribbling out airframes at boutique production rates and the French being, well, French with the Socata line, Mooney has continued to dominate in the U.S., building right around 100 airframes a year, give or take.

Now that both Cirrus and Lancair are poised to enter the four-place market with what will pass as moderately priced high-perform…

[IMGCAP(1)]If the golden age of the plastic airplane hasnt arrived, its about to. Cirrus is scooping up orders for its SR20, the Lancair Columbia may finally be rolling off the line in numbers and here comes Diamond with the long-awaited DA40-180 Star, a four-place follow-up to the Katana trainer.

If nothing else, the world doesnt lack for choice in four-place, fixed-gear aircraft, leading us to wonder if there are enough buyers to support all the manufacturers who hope to ply this increasingly crowded field.

For Diamond, the DA40 may be a must-do project and its coming late to the party. Diamond has been peddling the two-place Katana to the training market for more than five yea…

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One look at the Eagle 150 should be enough to convince you this is not your fathers Cherokee. With its unique dual-wing planform, the Australian-built Eagle-which is being toured around the U.S. this year-may appear to be the product of the homebuilt market. But the Eagle is a certified design aimed squarely at the training market.

If it takes a weird design to break into this market, the Eagle has that in spades. Say what you will about its size, shape and flying qualities, one thing goes unchallenged: When this airplane taxis onto the ramp, people notice it. (Never mind that some of them may be saying, what the hell is that thing?)

The Eagle will soon be pitched aga…