I always thought Sport pilot rules were intended to keep an increasingly older pilot population flying as their eyesight, motor skills and life expectancy gradually decreased. With new pilot numbers at a 100 year low, someone has to be out there flying, right?
As for LSA, I always saw this as a way for stimulating innovation in GA aircraft design. It's ridiculous for an established manufacturer to dump million$ into the standard FAA certification process for a new plane, so they keep pumping out "improved" versions of the same old designs we've had since 1940. For these same companies, it's also not logical to re-jigger production for a cheap, low profit plane.
On the other hand, it's relatively easy for a start-up to fit into the LSA box and get on with aircraft sales. It's a well intentioned category, but unfortunately the regulatory box is too small. Innovation needs to be cheap, simple and clever....which is what LSAs need to be.
