Nobody would argue that the introduction of light-sport aircraft (LSA) changed general aviation in ways unseen since the golden era of Cubs and Luscombes.
The 10th annual U.S. Sport Aviation Expo drew a near-record crowd of more than 20,000 to Sebring Municipal Airport (SEF) in mid-January for what has become the nation's premier sport-aircraft showcase and the kickoff to general aviation's annual calendar of events.
There are a few new models such as the Cessna M2, the Eclipse 550, and the HondaJet coming on line this year and a lot of incremental improvements being introduced.
Pilot reports can only tell you so much. Back in the glory days of aviation, when the industry was selling 18,000 units a year, manufacturers used to provide airplanes to magazines for several days or even a week for evaluation.
The market for turbine aircraft is slowly turning around, used inventories for many models are decreasing and some manufacturers are starting to cautiously ramp up production.