News from OSH

The convention returned after a one-year hiatus in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decades long effort to find a suitable replacement for 100-octane leaded avgas moved one step closer to a solution when General Aviation Modifications Inc. (GAMI) announced that it has received two supplemental type certificates authorizing the use of its G100UL high-octane unleaded avgas (see “No Fooling, a New Unleaded Fuel,” p. 86). One STC covers a limited number of models of Lycoming engines and the second is for a limited number of Cessna airframes.

Aviation Safety Resources, a Nicholasville, Kentucky-based designer and producer of whole aircraft emergency parachute recovery systems, announced agreements to install its systems in three single-engine aircraft models.

Five new sport pilots and a new CFI received their wings July 27 at EAA AirVenture. The annual ceremony recognizes graduates of the nonprofit Able Flight’s annual scholarship program, which provides people with disabilities opportunities in aviation.

Textron Aviation showed off the boxy, high-wing, special-purpose cargo-hauling or people-moving Cessna SkyCourier 408 twin turboprop. The Cessna Caravan’s big brother occupied airshow center at Boeing Plaza after the aircraft arrived for its public debut.

It’s been years in the making. Diamond Aircraft, which has long been developing the DA50 RG, publicly displayed it in North America for the first time during EAA AirVenture.

The next airplane from Van’s Aircraft, the RV–15, is going to have one striking difference from all those that came before it: a high wing. Van’s officials confirmed that their next airplane will be made of metal like the kit airplanes that preceded it. But it will have a high wing and be “suitable” for backcountry flying at remote airstrips.

Using its extensive ADS-B network, flight tracking service FlightAware announced that it is launching Aviator, a robust suite of flight tracking and alerting tools for piston aircraft owners and operators.

German air mobility pioneer Volocopter presented the first public, crewed, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) demonstration in the United States. A shorter flight by a smaller aircraft, California-based Opener’s BlackFly, was made on the same day, claiming the “first public human-operated eVTOL fixed-wing aircraft demonstration.”

aopa.org/AirVenture2021