Don't see how we can make any final judgments about LSA while the economy is still so weak. Just the fact that so many vendors are still hanging on may be a good sign. After several 'fat' economic years, hopefully soon, then we'll really start to see what the Light Sport Aircraft industry can do.
As far as light GA in general, it may not dead yet but clearly is pretty sick. I must agree with Flyinb's comment above - the aviation media has completely failed to take airframe, avionics and other vendors to task for what are often quite high prices. Maybe not ridiculously high, but Ford would certainly not be a household name today if ol' Henry had priced cars like that.
It would be refreshing, to say the least, to read an article in an aviation magazine once in a while that actually pushed vendors to lower costs. Surely there are ways to do it. I don't buy the excuses any more than in medicine. And I wonder sometimes too if it's a lot like college tuition - everyone raises prices because the other guy does, and you end up with a GA rate of inflation far beyond the national average.
Didn't see it mentioned, but gotta figure that with upper fuselage damage, the Cirrus pilot didn't have much confidence that the parachute system would work. Glad he was able to land with a shattered windshield and that everyone was OK.
