The Light Sport Aircraft category was created by the FAA in 2004 with the hopes that it would lead to the first affordable airplanes. By lowering restrictions for LSA’s, it was predicted that planes would be able to sell for around $60,000.<p>9 years later, none of the big players in the industry have been able to accomplish this. Cessna made its Skycatcher, which was supposed to sell for under $100,000. It launched in 2007 at $110,000, and has since increased its price up to $150,000. Several, better attempts at an affordable LSA have been made since then, but decent planes have struggled to find price points under $80,000. A few are sold in the $60-80k range, but these are “bare-bones” airplanes, and the market has shown little demand for planes not equipped with radios, lights, navigation, iPod jacks, etc… even if they are affordable.<p>I co-founded a company that has made an airplane with all these amenities and more for $55k. The design has been around for a few years now and comes from a kit-plane manufacturer in the Czech Republic. It is tiny: 250 pounds empty weight, which is small enough to be classified as an ultralight (although its performance takes it way out of ultralight eligibility). It is very strong, capable of carrying 60 pounds of fuel, a 230 pound pilot, and 30 pounds of baggage. Because it’s so small, the performance specs are competitive with the Cessna Skycatcher on just a 50 hp engine. It is very fuel efficient, getting 60 mpg and flying 575 miles on one tank. Radio, GPS navigation, collision avoidance, synthetic flight, lights, and an emergency locator transmitter all come standard on the plane.<p>I know this isn’t tech news, but I love this website and rarely get to contribute since I’m not a programmer. Here is our website: http://www.skycraftairplanes.com. Please give me your input.