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Quicksilver takes aim at LSA market

Quicksilver Aeronautics will offer the two-seat GT500 as a special light sport aircraft. Photo courtesy Quicksilver Aeronautics

Temecula, Calif.-based Quicksilver Aeronautics offered at EAA AirVenture a status update on two new Special Light Sport Aircraft (SLSA) designs announced in April. One is the Sport 2S open-cockpit airplane, a design based on one of Quicksilver’s two-seat ultralight-derived models. The other is the partially-enclosed-cockpit GT500.

The Sport 2S is nearing certification as an LSA, and FAA auditors are expected to review the design in September 2013. Currently, the Sport 2S price is set at $39,995.

GT500 certification is expected by the end of 2013. Because the GT500 is already certified under Primary Category rules, testing to LSA standards should be considerably less complex.

In other developments, Quicksilver said it was in the process of designing an electric motorglider, called the EMG for short, which would come under the FAR Part 103 ultralight regulations.

“We want to put Part 103 back in business,” said EMG designer Brian Carpenter.”

Thomas A. Horne

Thomas A. Horne

AOPA Pilot Editor at Large
AOPA Pilot Editor at Large Tom Horne has worked at AOPA since the early 1980s. He began flying in 1975 and has an airline transport pilot and flight instructor certificates. He’s flown everything from ultralights to Gulfstreams and ferried numerous piston airplanes across the Atlantic.
Topics: Light Sport Aircraft, Financial, Aviation Industry

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