That's a huge improvement. Some existing aircraft will be able to convert to LSAs under MOSAIC, many existing manufacturers will switch to building LSAs, and we'll see many new developments as well.
The current crop of planes in general aviation is deteriorating with nothing to replace them. The average age of a GA aircraft is over 50 years old. They were never designed for this lifetime. Many people are flying aircraft that are closer to the Wright brothers in time than to today. The most popular engine, the Lycoming O-320 was designed in 1953.
50 years ago planes were affordable, maintenance was not prohibitive, and an upper middle class person could easily fly for fun if they wanted to. These rules are hopefully going to make general aviation dramatically cheaper.
The fact that electric engines are included, that you can install new experimental avionics, do some of your own maintenance, etc. while lifting the many restrictions on current LSAs is pretty amazing. Just getting past many of the certification requirements, which are overkill for GA applications, are going to make everything insanely cheaper.
MOSAIC will also give new companies a path into the market, now they can start in the LSA category, develop their product and sell it, and then eventually go for certification. Otherwise you have a massive startup cost with no idea about product-market fit.
I am strongly in favor of MOSAIC's aims and almost all of their choices. I do think that SLSA not having a better safety record than TC/Personal is a problem for the current SLSA grouping. Weather and fuel accidents factor prominently as contributing or primary factors in fatal accidents and an airplane that can only go 120 knots and can only weigh 1320 pounds is far less prone to tangle with unexpected en route weather. (It's not impossible, but contrast that with a 200 knot airplane carrying 700 pounds of fuel in terms of ability to cross multiple weather systems.)
I think it's great. I hope the losses remain low enough for the program to continue to be expanded. I'm not nearly as hopeful as you are that it's going to be transformational for the industry in the sense of returning to the 1960s heyday.
> The current crop of planes in general aviation is deteriorating with nothing to replace them.
In the ultralight world, you got a ton of new airframe designs - including electric ones such as the Pipistrel Velis Electro.
Agree on the engines though, there hasn't been much innovation there for decades, but IMHO that's also a factor of war planes switching over to jet engines and the GA market being too small to justify the investment into the development of piston engines and too poor to invest into jet engines.
The current crop of planes in general aviation is deteriorating with nothing to replace them. The average age of a GA aircraft is over 50 years old. They were never designed for this lifetime. Many people are flying aircraft that are closer to the Wright brothers in time than to today. The most popular engine, the Lycoming O-320 was designed in 1953.
50 years ago planes were affordable, maintenance was not prohibitive, and an upper middle class person could easily fly for fun if they wanted to. These rules are hopefully going to make general aviation dramatically cheaper.
The fact that electric engines are included, that you can install new experimental avionics, do some of your own maintenance, etc. while lifting the many restrictions on current LSAs is pretty amazing. Just getting past many of the certification requirements, which are overkill for GA applications, are going to make everything insanely cheaper.
MOSAIC will also give new companies a path into the market, now they can start in the LSA category, develop their product and sell it, and then eventually go for certification. Otherwise you have a massive startup cost with no idea about product-market fit.