Even if 2008 is not yet over, I’m already sure that this year will remain in aviation history for the number of new aircraft types that made their maiden flight. From Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) to Very Light Jet (VLJ), there have been one or more maiden flights in almost all aircraft categories.

Interestingly, both young and old aircraft manufacturers take part in this wave of novelties. The first one was the Skycatcher, Cessna’s endeavour to conquer the LSA market. To me it looks like a mini 152, which itself is a mini 172. Nothing really new…

In the same category, I muchly prefer the ICON A5. The maiden flight of this amphibian LSA was slightly different from the others, as it was off-airport, but out of a Californian lake. There were certainly other maiden flights in the LSA category, and more will follow, this is really a market in full expansion.

The high performance single engine aircraft segment was rather inactive for years, but with the DA50, I hope it will revive. Standard single engines are simply too slow for a good integration in the IFR system. The ideal plane for that is certainly a VLJ… as far as budget permits.

The Eclipse 500 has been flying for quite a while now, and depsite some youth incidents, it’s certainly a success. It’s concurents are not far behind. The Diamond D-Jet made its maiden flight in 2007, and the Cirrus “The Jet” and the Piper Jet both got airborne for the first time in July 2008.

In our nearly instantaneous world, all of these events are filmed, and the videos go online together with the press release themselves. But despite that modernity, the tradition of “splashing” the crew after the flight did not disappear… If you look at the videos, you’ll find one common point between all these flights, which make there nature obviously visible. Did you found it ? Leave your answer in a comment.