General Aviation Aircraft

Explore the world of general aviation aircraft with our reviews. Written from a pilot’s perspective, these reviews provide fantastic insight into what these general aviation planes are really like.

August 14, 2019

2019 Four-Seat Piston Singles Round-Up
A look at today's four-seat singles. What they do, how they do it and how much it all costs.
Cirrus SR20

For reasons that are both easy to understand and completely counterintuitive, the four-seat, piston-powered airplane has, for decades, dominated the GA marketplace. And it continues to do so, even though the number of pilots who buy these planes as a transportation tool has slowed dramatically, mostly in lock step with the slowing of the overall more »
August 9, 2019

Video: NEC “Flying Car” Makes First Flight
Japanese Electronics Giant Ventures Into Urban Aerial Mobility
NEC Flying Car

This week electronics giant NEC released a video of the successful first flight of a flying car it’s been developing. (We can’t wait for the video of the first drive!). The craft, actually an autonomously controlled passenger-carrying vehicle, is much more like a helicopter than a flying car. It’s really a quad-copter, and a pretty more »
July 26, 2019

Flight Design Electric F2 At EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019!
It didn’t fly in, but its presence alone was huge.
Flight Design F2

  Flight Design had its Siemens electric-powered F2 at Airventure Oshkosh 2019. This one’s a proof of concept, but it incorporates nearly all of the features the production model will have. There will be four designs down the road, but the first will be a two-seat model powered by a Rotax 915. For much more, more »
July 25, 2019

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019: Ameravia V.1 Enjoying Success; Plus, A New Model Coming
The four-seat trainer Italian trainer is selling well while it’s getting better.
Ameravia V1.0

At Oshkosh AirVenture 2019 Ameravia director of sales Mike McMann had little but good news for reporters. The four-seat high-wing piston single, which we flew and reported on in our May 2019 issue of Plane & Pilot, is a natural rival to the Cessna 172 and Piper PA-28. And at $278,000, it’s a relative bargain more »
July 24, 2019

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019: Something Extra From Aerobatic Plane Maker Extra
The latest model, called the NG, is totally different from any Extra that came before. Here’s how.
Extra NG

Arguably the most advanced civil one- and two-seat airplanes ever, the Extra series of unlimited class aerobatic airplanes just got better and cooler. And a few other superlatives to boot. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest news, notes, and information from Oshkosh 2019! Extra announced the new plane at the International Aerobatics more »
July 23, 2019

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019: Epic Fast Turboprop: Big Progress Toward Certification
The Bend, Oregon company reported major progress toward FAA approval along with some other interesting tidbits.
Epic E1000

It wasn’t the news that Epic Aircraft had hoped to share at Oshkosh 2019, but it was still really good news.  The Oregon-based airplane maker, which has copious production capabilities, has made great progress toward FAA certification, which will, of course, lead to the company beginning production and sales of its super sleek Epic E1000. more »
July 9, 2019

How The New Learjet Liberty Is New And How It’s Not
The latest model from the Wichita plane maker will compete with other light jets, but only sort of. Here’s why it’s got a niche of its own.
Lear 75 Liberty

The “new” Learjet Liberty is a brand new plane, well, at least according to much of the hype surrounding its launch, but it’s not really new at all. A follow-on offering of the Learjet 75, which was certificated in 2013, the $9.9 million Liberty is not a different plane in terms of its type certificate more »
June 20, 2019

A Flapping Wing Airbus? Yup.
The aerospace giant is testing a flying scale proof of concept model that kind of flaps. Here’s what it is and why they’re doing it.
Airbus AlbatrossOne

Aerospace giant Airbus is testing a large scale model of an A321 with wingtips that flap, kind of. The model makes use of what Airbus is calling an “aeroelastic hinge” that flaps in response to gusts and turbulence. Named after a bird, the albatross, which is known to be a great long-distance flyer, the AlbatrosOne more »
June 20, 2019

Electric Powered? Eviation’s 9-Seat Commuter Plane Launches At Paris
Eviation’s little commuter plane is like nothing you’ve ever seen. But will we really ever see it? At least one operator is betting yes.
Eviation's electric powered plane, "Alice"

At the Paris Air Show this week, Eviation—we actually kind of like the name—unveiled a non-flying, electric powered prototype of its 9-seat commuter plane, called, oddly enough, “Alice.” The Israeli company is real, in the sense that it has facilities and has already managed to come up with the mockup/prototype.  We’ll start referring to it more »
June 14, 2019

Uber Elevate 2019 Is Over, But Are Things Ever Getting Interesting
Uber’s gathering in Washington D.C. of the movers and shakers in urban aerial mobility had some major announcements of partnerships and programs.
UberCopter

The Uber Elevate Summit took place in Washington D.C. this week, with two days of seminars, speakers and tech talks all on the subject of Urban Aerial Mobility (UAM…get used to the acronym). Here’s a video of Uber’s vision of how this might all work. The event, hosted by Uber at the Ronald Reagan Building more »
June 7, 2019

Why This Bizarre V-Shaped Plane Idea Might Just Fly
The proposed model has a few highly desirable features.
V-shaped plane

Since the heyday of Burt Rutan, we’ve grown somewhat accustomed to weird plane shapes. This one, dubbed the Flying-V (nicely descriptive, but not very creative in our estimation), is being promoted by Dutch airline KLM and manufacturer Airbus, and is pushing itself down the aisle and way past our comfort zone. The concept plane—dream on more »
June 4, 2019

Blimps And The Worldwide Helium Shortage
The stuff is hard to get and nearly impossible to hold on to. Can airships survive without the light stuff?
Container of liquid helium

The stuff is hard to get and nearly impossible to hold on to. Can airships survive without the light stuff?
May 20, 2019

What’s Going On with Cessna Denali Turboprop?
The PC12 killer has hit some impressive milestones of late as it makes up ground.
Cessna Denali

What exactly is happening with the emerging Cessna Denali single-engine turboprop and when can customers get theirs? The first question is easy. The second one is coming into sharper focus. In concept, the new turboprop is a direct competitor to the Pilatus PC12. Both planes are priced at more than $4.5 million. At 285 knots, more »
May 20, 2019

Daher TBM 940 Achieves Milestone
Two advanced features of the single-engine turboprop required the thumbs up from regulators. The company got the first approval this week.
Daher TBM 940

The evolution of the Daher TBM pressurized single-engine turboprop continues its steady march. On Monday at the European Business Aviation Expo in Geneva, Switzerland, Daher announced that it had earned EASA certification for its latest TBM, the 940. It expected to begin deliveries in Europe soon and to begin deliveries in the North American market more »
April 30, 2019

Blimps, Dirigibles and Perpetual Motion Machines
A cool new airship gets floated. Another crash lands. What the heck is going on?
Charles Lindbergh talking to a blimp pilot

Airships. With that one word said, let me just add this: if you’re still reading, thank goodness. It’s not that lighter-than-air craft aren’t fascinating. They are, and there are some really crazy things happening with them these days. It’s just that almost no one knows that or seems to care. That apathy is born of more »
April 11, 2019

The Vulcanair Is The Not So ‘New’ Kid In Town
The Vulcanair V1.0 isn’t a very familiar plane to most pilots. Vulcanair and Ameravia plan to change that.

We’d lucked out. It was a gorgeous winter afternoon in Sebring, Florida, a comic book periwinkle sky, just an insinuation of wind, and, I imagined, the kind of visibility from up higher that would allow one to make out Vero Beach on the Atlantic coast and then, upon turning, spy Sarasota on the Gulf Coast more »
April 10, 2019

We Fly The Cirrus Vision Jet Generation 2
A couple of big improvements make the latest single-engine jet from Cirrus a whole new experience.

On the ramp in the mist, the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet, which many still call the “Cirrus Jet,” is a figure of some mystery. When I posted a photo on my Facebook page of the plane viewed from the rear, its distinctive V-tail prominent, a friend asked if it was a “Bugatti.” Now, the Bugatti, more »

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