Posted on 07/29/2018 8:09:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It’s not available in the U.S. but a South Korean company is so proud of the country’s first indigenous light sport aircraft, it brought it to AirVenture just to show it off. The Vessel Aircraft KLA-100 was certified by South Korea in 2017 and also has EASA certification. FAA acceptance under the LSA category is expected next. The aircraft began development in 2013 and went into production earlier this year. The company is government owned.
The aircraft has a large 51-inch-wide cockpit with a Garmin 3X Touch panel on two 10.6-inch touchscreens. It has a two-axis autopilot and analog backup instruments.....
(Excerpt) Read more at avweb.com ...
That’s a very expensive LSA. And 420 pound useful load makes it a single person airplane for most couples.
Admittedly I don’t know much about single engine airplanes. It looks just like a Piper Cub from 1970.
We Americans being Fattys, that would make a 420 pound limit kind of limiting.
But for a Korean couple it would carry them easily with their luggage.
A couple of companies tried to have light aircraft made cheaply in China. They never made it to minimum safety/manufacturing standards for importation. I am thinking that South Korea might work out.
The Piper Cub was a wing over cockpit design.
I saw this up close at Oshkosh last week. The wide cockpit looks very comfortable for a traveling LSA, especially compared to others in the same class like the Czechsport/Pipersport, or an RV12.
They are likely banking on the FAA moving to allow increased weight in light sport. Most non-US light sport planes with the exact same setups are certified to 1500 or 1600 lbs for the rest of the world. Several actually seat four people elsewhere, while restricted in the US to two people and 1320 lbs.
The hysterical hyperbole of unmedicaled pilots falling out of the sky has not come to pass.
These planes are built using the latest technologies, including built-in parachutes, while the rest of the GA fleet is approaching 50 or 60 years old now.
Wing over or under the cabin; it still looks like a Piper Cub from 1970 to me. And conversely the new VW Beatle looks like the VW Bug from 1970. The technology of the new Beatle is not the same as was the old Beatle. Hopefully the South Korean single prop is more advanced than the single prop planes from 50 odd years ago.
From that angle the plane looks ultra kool. I am wondering if The South Korean economy in 2018 has advanced to a level similar to the USA economy of 1970?! Will there be a new car over there soon that looks like a 1967 Malibu Super Sport?!
I hope that the South Korean plane is as durable as the Piper Cub.
People are still flying them.
Recently, Vessel Co., Ltd., and Flight Design made a joint announcement after debuting their new KLA-100 low-wing, light aircraft at Aero Friedrichshafen 2017. Few expected this from the make of the very popular CT-series most recently including the CTLSi. Through 2016, this has been the most popular Special LSA in America.
https://www.bydanjohnson.com/vessel-south-korea-flight-design-offer-kla-100/
The collaboration link to Flight Design and the CTS LSA aircraft from Germany was not quite mentioned...:^)
https://flightdesign.com/ctls/
The article makes it sound like it's actually a Korean-only design. Next it will be interesting to see where the newer CTLS planes will be made - any bets on Korea? I think the present production facility in in the Ukraine.
That design looks very similar to the TL Ultralight Sting series, which are remarkable aircraft. Very efficient.
For an LSA thats very expensive, it would be competing with planes costing half that.
Not quite, the most popular US LSA is the CTLS and it is about $175,000 list price by the time you add reasonable avionics, autopilot and avionics.
This one is more expensive, but not double the competition...:^) The #2 popular LSA (a 2 year old ranking) is the Carbon Cub which seems to be around $235,000 by the time is is equpped.
http://cubcrafters.com/carboncub/ss/configure
Carbon Cubs are wildly popular among the big-tire flyers, to whom speed is not the first consideration.
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