5 Single Engine Airplanes You Can Buy in 2018

Welcome to Mojo Grip, Mike here. Today, we're going to explore a few new airplanes that are expected to hit the market in 2018. Now, these airplanes, the stats, performance data, and prices may change once they come into market. But as of right now, these are the numbers that we expect them to be at. Okay. And the reason why some of these airplanes have taken longer than expected is because they're all currently in the certification process. Some of them already launched, but most of them are still in certification process, and that typically takes time and money, it costs a lot of money to get an airplane certified, especially smaller aircraft. Okay. But that's all boring news. I'm really excited about these airplanes. So let's get into it. The first airplane on the list today is the Flight Design C4. Now a little history about Flight Design. This is a light sport aircraft manufacturer, and right now they actually have the highest selling light sport aircraft in the world. It's called the Flight Design. The Light Sport Aircraft, the Flight Design CTSW, CTS, there's multiple models to it, but it's the number one selling aircraft in the world. And it's a two seater. And over the years, Flight Design have tried to bring in a comparable four seater into the market. And again, because of certification, it's taken longer than expected. And from what I know, Flight Design actually applied for certification for the C4 back in 2011. So for several reasons, things have stalled. But again, we're expecting this airplane to hit the market this year. The Flight Design C4 will have a Continental IO 360 engine. Power output is around 180 horsepower. The C4 is expected to seat four people comfortably and be able to travel a thousand nautical miles without having to stop for extra fuel. Cruise speed is around 140 knots. So that's roughly a hundred, a little over 166 miles per hour. So this is expected to be a true cross country airplane. And you're able to take your family, your friends on a longer trip. Now price point, the C4 is expected to sell at $250,000. Now, if we compare this price to other airplanes in the market, it's actually priced really well for the performance that you get from it. The fuel economy with the IO 360, you're expected to burn roughly 10 to 11 gallons per hour. Now it's too soon to speak on all of this performance data and prices. But again, from what we know, these are the data that Flight Design released. And these are the numbers that we expect it to be once the airplane gets the proper certification. So let's just stay tuned and have our fingers crossed. Second airplane on the list today is called the VL3 Evolution by JMV. Now, the first thing about this airplane, it reminds me so much of the Lancer 360 or the Lancer Legacy. And this airplane comes in two different models. You can have the fixed gear with the fixed landing gear. And then you also have the retractable, which is always a sexy option. Okay. And it will, it will cost you a little bit extra to have the retractable and to maintain the retractable, but you get a little bit more, a better performance from the airplane because with those gears up, it means your airplane can go faster because you have less drag. Now the VL3 is originally a Czech Republic airplane, and it's already selling in Europe, but not in the US. But this year, the manufacturer is planning to bring the airplane into the US as an experimental airplane. Now, again, for the reason I mentioned earlier, because it takes a long time and a lot of money to get an airplane certified, another route airplane manufacturer would go is to go through the experimental category. That way they don't have to spend as much money or time to get the airplane certified. So as an experimental, you buy a kit and then you put the airplane together yourself. And typically a manufacturer would have like a build assist program, which I expect the VL3 to have. The VL3, like most of the other light sport in the market would have a Rotax 912 or 914 engine. And the expected cruise speed is at 145 knots, which is pretty fast for a light sport. And at that speed, you're also burning just five gallons per hour, which is awesome. Now, the price point for the VL3 is anywhere between $150,000 to $200,000, depending on the options that you get. Generally things that will cost you a little more is the type of avionics you want to put in the airplane. If you want diamond, or if you want your traditional six pack, or you want like IFR type avionics and you go for the Garmin, you probably have to pay a little bit more for that. And then, as I said, also, if you chose the retractable gear instead of fixed gear, that's probably going to cost you just a little bit more also. Okay. So again, the price, expected price, $150,000, $200,000, maybe a little over $200,000 for this airplane. But it's a beautiful, beautiful aircraft. I can't stop staring at it because it reminds me so much of the Lancer Legacy. Again, these numbers are what we know right now, and they may change in the nearest future. But as of right now, we expect the numbers to stay the same. Number three airplane on the list is called the Pipistrel Panthera. If you've watched any of my videos on Mojo Group, you know that I'm personally just obsessed with this airplane. The Panthera, sadly, has taken a really long time for it to launch and mostly due to certification problems. So originally Pipistrel wanted to fit this airplane with a Lycoman engine called the IO390. Now the output for this power platform is about 260 horsepower. But for whatever reason, that engine was not able to go through certification. So Pipistrel had to go back to the drawing board and now the Panthera is expected to be fitted with the IO540, which already has certification. It's already been used in several aircraft. So they should have no problem sort of flying this airplane with that engine. That said, the IO540 is a much bigger engine. And what that means for Pipistrel is they have to go back to the drawing board and see how they can get the numbers in terms of fuel consumption and things like that, because originally they wanted the Panthera to be a fuel efficient airplane, a true four seater, but also consumes less fuel. And this airplane is in the same category as the Cirrus SR22s or the Cessna TTX. And those airplanes burn anywhere from 16, 20 to almost 30 gallons per hour, cruising at close to 200 knots. And what the Panthera promises us is you get the same speed at 200 knots, but burn less, literally half the fuel. So the Panthera originally is expected to cruise around 200 knots, but only burn around 10 gallons per hour. Now, again, with the increase in the engine size, those numbers might change, but we're waiting for good news from Pipistrel. Nonetheless, I'm still super excited about this airplane. And I cannot wait to see it fly in the US. Now the Panthera is expected to cost around $500,000. This particular airplane though, I expect that price to go up post certification. If they're able to get it certified in the US, that price is likely going to go up. But another thing I've read about is that the Panthera might just come in as an experimental. Okay. Because the certification is dragging the process. The manufacturer is thinking about just making the airplane as an experimental airplane. That way they don't have to wait anymore for certification and builders can choose which engine that best fits them or their flight plan. So I actually think that's a better route to go, but until they actually launch, we are waiting for Pipistrel to give us an update. Number four on the list is the Diamond DA-50. So personally, I like this airplane because I trained in a Diamond DA-40, which is an incredible airplane. Diamond is generally known for its amazing safety record. And that's one of the reasons why I opted to train in the DA-40 because it has such a high safety record. Now the DA-40 is expected to be just about the same, a nice, safe and reliable airplane to fly. Now the DA-50, again, we've been teased about this airplane for years and currently it's going through certification. The DA-50, unlike the DA-40, is expected to seat five people comfortably. Right now, the specific engine to be used, we don't know yet. We know it's going to be a Lycoming engine and power output would be anywhere from 260 horsepower to 375 horsepower. Fuel consumption, again, we don't have that information just yet, but we do expect this airplane to cruise around 170 to 180 knots and the price point will be anywhere from $450,000 to $550,000. Again, we're going to wait on Diamond to get the airplane certified before we know the real deal. The airplane looks good in my opinion, design wise. It looks very similar to the DA-40, but definitely a little bit bigger and wider in terms of the cabin space. Now the only color scheme we've seen so far is your general white color paint job. And then recently they came out with this gold, black, and purple. It looks very interesting, but not tasteful for me. So I hope you get, I hope Diamond does give you a better color combination than this current one. But anyway, until we know more, the DA-50 again is expected to launch this year or sometime this year. And hopefully they're able to get the certification for it. And I'll definitely keep you guys updated once the airplane hits the market. The last airplane on the list today is the Icon A-5. Now I purposely put this airplane as the last one because I want to talk a little bit more about it. The Icon A-5, this is a great airplane in terms of design and things that it's expected to do. But as you know, if you know anything about Icon, they have been plagued by just so many bad news and bad media. The airplane has had some high profile fatal crashes in the last few years. And I even made a video recently about the crash and how safe this airplane is. But more interesting is that Icon continues to raise the price for this airplane. Now, initially the A-5, when they launched initially, I believe cost around $150,000, which puts it around the same ballpark as many light sport aircrafts in the market. And also just like a lot of the light sport aircraft, the Icon A-5 also uses the Rotax 912. You expect the airplane to cruise around 100 to 110 knots per hour and burn three to four gallons per hour, which is where the Icon A-5 sits. But here's the thing, over the years, they've had a lot of marketing efforts, so I know a lot of money went into that, also to get the airplane built and certified, things like that. Icon has just had so many delays and so many stalls in the production of this airplane. And unlike the other airplanes I listed before, Icon A-5's issues are not anything certification related. It's just a lot of things in the company I have no idea. But anyway, right now to get into one of these, you're now looking at price point from $269,000 all the way up to $389,000. Now you may ask yourself, well, it's an airplane, it's a nice airplane and it should cost around that. But no, when you think of other airplanes in this particular category, which is a light sport with the performance you're getting, this airplane should not cost more than $200,000 max, it should be anywhere from $100,000 to $120,000 to maybe even $150,000, anything beyond that is pushing the envelope. And that's what Icon A-5 has done. They've pushed the envelope way outside. And right now I do think that paying close to $400,000 for literally a sport airplane, which is somewhat a toy, it's something you take out maybe on the weekends, it's to me, it's not a true cross country airplane because it's slow. Okay. The current cruise speed for the Icon A-5 is around 95, 85 or 95 knots. That's pretty slow. That's pretty slow for a cross country airplane, but you're going to be paying $400,000 for that. With that same price, you can probably get a Diamond, hell, you can even get into a nice series for $400,000. Okay. So, but nevertheless, the Icon A-5 is still a beautiful airplane. It's nice to look at. It has a really nice, sporty interior, but again, Icon needs to do something about that price point. Now, unlike the other airplanes listed in this video, the Icon A-5 is already certified and is already in production. And you have a few owners out there, but if you're looking to get into one right now, you probably have to wait a little bit because they do have issues with their production. And again, with that price point, I think you'll probably get a better airplane with better performance for even less than $389,000. But until we get more update from Icon, those are the numbers, you know, it's close to $400,000 for one, and you're only cruising at 85 to 95 knots. Okay. So that's it for this video today, guys. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did share the video, give it a thumbs up and in the future dates, I'll definitely update you guys on some of these airplanes. And again, I'm very excited, particularly for the Panthera. I hope it comes into the U S this year and we are expecting that. But until next time, guys, thank you so much for watching and spending time with me. I will catch you on the next video. Peace out.