Aviation Is Dead: 10 Cool Things That Prove This Is A Lie

It's been a crazy few weeks for the Plane & Pilot team, with travels to far-flung places where lots of cool things are happening, with even more good news coming by way of...get ready for it!Washington, D.C.!So to naysayers everywhere, here are 10 cool things happening in aviation---right now!

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

New CubCrafters bird on the way. Now that another media outlet has spilled the beans on this program, here goes. CubCrafters will soon announce a Part 23 airplane that's the result of a big investment and a long program. The company did it the right way, doing its financing in-house and developing the product without taking any pre-orders. Think of the worst example of how a new airplane program might be done!.okay, have you got that picture in your mind? Now, imagine it being done the opposite way. That's the way the good folks in Yakima did it. We can't wait to tell you all about this new airplane coming soon.
Perlan. It's nice to be richer than God, and it's even nicer when the company with the resources uses them to do some serious sleeves-rolled-up aeronautical R&D, which is what Airbus is doing with its Perlan glider project. The program aims to take the glider to 90,000 feet, the edge of space, where Airbus says the craft will be doing around 380 knots and the pilot will be for all intents and purposes an astronaut. Five stars!
Regs Schmegs! The FAA has decided its training regs are outdated and need revising. That's a headline we wish we'd seen 25 years ago! Regardless, the agency, in an NPRM published just the other day, has laid the groundwork for liberalizing some crazy outdated training guidance, including regs on high-performance training and sim use. It's not revolutionary stuff, but it's a start.
The NRA for planes! Hats off to AOPA for crushing it with its advocacy of late. The organization seems to have hit its stride, pushing regs along on everything from medical reform to the aforementioned training reg update. I like living in an aviation regulatory world in which we pilots have a fighting chance at having our collective voice heard. If you're not a member, sign up today.
Sun Flyer. You can read my comments about the importance of the Sun Flyer program elsewhere in this week's eNews, but let me reiterate. This is the future of flying---not necessarily electrics, maybe fuel cells, maybe mag propulsion (okay, now I'm being fanciful), but you get the idea. This is not because I'm a tree hugger (they're too rough and you need to look out for woodpeckers), but because the time has come to move along from gas piston engines, whose time has come and is on the way out. Diesel, okay, electrics, for sure, and who knows what else. But propulsion costs are killing aviation, and whenever an outmoded technology threatens to do that, a new technology will emerge to take its place.
Okay, as I was writing that, a B-25 flew over low level and I ran outside to gawk at it. Those engines will never be replaced by mag propulsion, and thank goodness for that. The sound alone does wonders for my soul. And have you seen that T-shirt out there that's a parody of the "Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign: "When an airplane flies I don't always look up and stare at it. . .Oh, wait, yes I do!"
Brag Break: The new Plane & Pilot continues to bring it. The past two issues we've been the first to fly and do pilot reports on the Mooney Acclaim Ultra (we're still waiting for flight report #2 from somebody) and the HondaJet, which some competitor recently announced it was working on. The next cover will also be a first flight report. Wait for it! We're celebrating two issues since our May redesign, and the reception from those people who matter most---you guys!---has been overwhelming. Look for LOTS of cool new stuff to keep on coming, and thanks for the support and encouragement.
EAA's focus on proficiency. As you know, I'm a longtime supporter of the proficiency movement, not a new thing, but a thing that has been expertly shepherded in the past several years by Hartzell's chief flying nut Joe Brown, who has spearheaded (can you "shepherd" and "spearhead" the same project? If anyone can, it's Joe Brown) the EAA's growing support of the Pilot Proficiency Center at AirVenture, of which Plane & Pilot is a major booster. Kudos to Jack Pelton and the rest of the good guys at EAA for putting this year's Center right where the name says it should be: at the EAA Crossroads just west of the main aircraft display area. It'll be bigger and better than ever, with Tech Talks by Jeppesen, awesome scenarios in Redbird sims, expert guidance from our instructor friends at NAFI and SAFE, live ATC by PilotEdge and much, much more. Pinch yourself, too, because it's all free to pilots like us.
App Wars! There are a few great apps out there, but the big ones from ForeFlight and Garmin just keep getting better and better. I've always been bad at keeping my logbook current, but with either app you can totally automate the process. And that's just one of the dozens of new features you get for a very modest annual fee. App me!
Spring is here! Take that, Old Man Winter, and let's go flying!

Isabel GoyerWriter

A commercial pilot, editor-in-Chief Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.