Sun’n’fun 2007, which runs from April 17th to 23rd, at Lakeland in Florida, has the theme of ‘Living the Dream’. New aircraft at the light end of the market are hoping to fuel the dream.
A fatal accident on arrival day at the annual Sun’n fun event in Lakeland, Florida, cast a small shadow over the lead up to the event but when it came to the official opening the skies resounded to the usual mix of experiemntal, classic, and warbird aircraft.
The event, which runs from April 17th to 23rd has the theme of ‘Living the Dream’. The U.S general aviation environment has been hit by rising insurance and fuel costs but there are signs of a fight back with new aircraft at the light end of the market offering lower cost of ownership. The battle has been led by relatively new manufacturers but Cessna, who are celebrating 80 years of aircraft construction this year, are showing their proof of concept ‘Light Sport’ and ‘New Generation Piston’ aircraft to visitors. The ‘Light Sport’, or ‘Sport’, as they prefer to call it, has had a number of outings in recent months. Cessna NGPCessna LSAThe ‘New Generation Piston’, however is a relative recluse and its clean composite lines have not been seen a great deal.
Cessna CEO, Jack Pelton, told Pilot that they represent the future of the company at the entry level. VIDEO: PILOT TV: Cessna CEO, Jack Pelton, talks about their new light aircraft.
