The highly anticipated #100 SLSA to receive ASTM approval is now history, as reported in depth by Dan Johnson, Pres. of LAMA (Light Acft. Mfg. Assoc.), on his industry-oggling website.Drum roll please...it's the sexy Van's RV-12!
Van's has been selling kits for its immensely popular RV homebuilts for decades. The RV-12 (there are several models: RV-4, RV-6, RV-9 etc.) is a low-wing all-metal airplane that is also approved as an E-LSA (experimentally constructed). More than 250 kits are already being built worldwide.
As Dan notes, no other aviation movement in history has ever achieved the diversity of 100 models in a similar time period (under 5 years). That's testimony not only to the ASTM process but also to computerized design and manufacturing, where smaller quantities of parts can be made efficiently and with a high degree of consistent accuracy - an engineer's dream.
---photos courtesy Van's Aircraft
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