For those of you that may have missed the Martin Jetpack demo at Airventure.

Lycoming announced this week at Airventure that they are pursuing an engine designed for the LSA market. The IO-233-LSA is a derivative of the IO-235 engine already in production and will be configured to use both AvGas and auto fuel without ethanol. Initial performance numbers weigh in at around 100hp, 200 pounds, 2400 hour TBO, and 5.25 gph at 75% power.

Check out our LSA Engine Comparison Table for a pretty comprehensive list of the competitors.

Not sure that this qualifies exactly as an LSA... but I'm pretty sure it meets the weight requirement.

Icon Aircraft recently announced the first flight of their new A5 amphibian Light Sport Aircraft. We'd like to congratulate Icon on this accomplishment!

Light Sport Aircraft represent an exciting market for general aviation and that market is still growing. Pennsylvania based T&T Aviation recently announced that their Falcon LS is the most recent LSA to get FAA approval.

JetWhine, via one of their contributors Scott Spangler, points out a very cool airplane that I must have missed in my pursuit of flying on the cheap. Their article points to a company called Valley Engineering that produces a line of aircraft called the "Backyard Flyer". Powered by VW engines these guys throw out some pretty impressive performance numbers... all this for about $30,000. Where do I sign?

Video Preview after the break...

We're happy to report that our LSA Comparison Table just reached 2,000 reads!! If you haven't had a chance to check it out we encourage you to do so. We think it's pretty comprehensive and includes some really good information. If you think we're missing something please drop us a line.

With all the Thielert troubles lately, we've been searching for a good story about Diesel/Jet-A fueled General Aviation aircraft, and this one must have just flow below the radar. Turns out there was a debut of sorts at Sun'n Fun that we must have missed. The folks at IndUS flew a Thorp T211 LSA powered by a WAM-100 diesel engine. They expect to get certification soon, perhaps even by Airventure 2008, so expect to hear more about them soon.