I noted a type of size and power creep slipping into the LSA world. Almost universally these small aircraft were initially Rotax powered and similar in size and weight. One manufacturer had a low-wing item on display with a 180-horsepower Lycoming and several exceeded the original 1320-pound gross. There are even plans to make the Cessna 150 and 152 LSA compliant, even if it means stretching the rules to fit the new norm. The term LSA might become generic without the close distinctions with which it st
arted.

Another trend, and a heartening one, is for once-foreign-made aircraft to migrate to American manufacturers. There were several instances of this at Sebring, with at least one example having a European and an American maker competing with one another at comparable prices. Oddly resistant to this trend, Cessna is having its Skycatcher made in China, citing high manufacturing costs and taxes here.

Most reports missed the electric highlights of the show, and a few glimmers of even more exciting changes coming in the next year or so.

Looking at a display of user-installable airbags for aircraft, made in France and also available for motorcyclists and horse jumpers!, I chanced on Abid Farooqui of Tampa Bay Aero Sport, who showed the battery-powered version of the trike on which Gerard Thevenot flew across the English Channel in 2009 to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Bleriot’s flight.

Thevenot’s craft was very high-tech, employing three small hydrogen fuel cells for its energy, while the commercially available unit shown at Sebring manages with a Flytec 60 amp-hour LiPo battery pack that gives 40 minutes’ endurance.

The whole package, including trike frame, Flytec’s HPD-13.5 (kW) motor, controller and single battery pack, weighs little enough for Farooqui’s partner, Jean-Luc Rousseau, to lift the little trike for a photo op. Rousseau is Gerard Thevenot’s son. The price is also light, $22,000 for the trike and motor assemblage with the same type of La Mouette wing used in the cross-channel flight. Total weight, Rousseau says, is 176 pounds. Buyers can add a second 22-pound battery to double endurance and still stay within LSA and ultralight limits. A two-stroke-powered version will cost $16,000, but it lacks the panache and quietude of the electric trike.

Farooqui explained that as battery technology improved, he hoped to introduce electric versions of the Revo Evolution line of two-seat trikes his company offers.

Randall Fishman (www.electraflyer.com) was there with his long-term electric trike and a new self-launching sailplane with a new ElectraFlyer motor he designed. The silvery cylinder puts out 22.5 kilowatts and weighs only 23 pounds. Housed in a swoopy air duct behind the roomy cockpit, it swings a folding two-blade prop. Fishman has computer numerical controlled (CNC) machining done in New York and motor windings crafted in Massachusetts; he uses a foreign source for the all-important magnets.

With motor, controller, batteries and carbon-fiber, aramid construction, the ready-to-go motorglider, FAR Part 103-ready, will sell for a projected $50,000, which is competitive with foreign entries of similar characteristics and performance.