Aviation note

I am way behind on the small-plane aviation news, because of the dreaded combination of (a) Olympics happening all around me and (b) actual writing to do.

As a place marker, two items: one positive, one.... interesting.

Positive news:  Much more information about Cirrus Design's new "Vision" personal jet here, from Flight Blogger, and here, from Cirrus itself.

Among many other things, I love the idea that Mike Van Staagen. who when I interviewed him for Free Flight in Duluth nearly a decade ago was working on the interior for the then-revolutionary SR-20, is now a Vice President for the Advanced Design Group making this plane.

Interesting news: So much is happening so fast at Eclipse Aviation that I'll have to catch up another time. But for later examination: a few months after I moved to Shanghai, in September of 2006. I heard from a friend in the FAA that it was worth noticing the way the Eclipse certification had so rapidly been approved.

Now that there is business turmoil in the company, a Congressional investigation seems to have been opened into that exact topic -- according to this story in the Albuquerque Journal. For the moment I say... interesting. (Thanks to David Strip.)