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Flight Design Goes All In on Light Sport Safety

The German light sport aircraft maker has always pushed the safety envelope.

Flight Design’s CTSLi offers an abundance of standard safety features. [Courtesy: Dimitri Delemarle]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Flight Design prioritizes occupant safety above all other design considerations, integrating safety features from the initial design phase of their aircraft.
  • Their aircraft incorporate a rigid, carbon-fiber "egg-shaped" cabin with a reinforced central tunnel for impact protection, alongside passive anti-spin and anti-stall aerodynamic designs like leading-edge cuffs.
  • Key safety systems include Garmin's Electronic Stability and Protection (ESP), ballistic parachute systems, four-point harnesses, airbags, and reinforced landing gear attachments.
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All airplane manufacturers consider the safety of their buyers to be a priority, but one light sport aircraft (LSA) manufacturer, Flight Design, takes this to another level and has made it their top priority. While others tout efficient airframe design, luxury interiors, or advanced avionics as their reason to buy, Flight Design makes it clear that designing airplanes that prioritized occupant safety is job number one.

Before any design commences on a Flight Design model, the first considerations are what safety features the model will employ, says Tom Peghiny, a consultant for Flight Design with 40 years of experience in the light aircraft field. Peghiny is also in the EAA Hall of Fame and is on the board of directors of the Light Aircraft Manufacturer’s Association (LAMA).  

Dan Pimentel

Dan Pimentel is an instrument-rated private pilot and former airplane owner who has been flying since 1996. As an aviation journalist and photographer, he has covered all aspects of the general and business aviation communities for a long list of major aviation magazines, newspapers and websites. He has never met a flying machine that he didn’t like, and has written about his love of aviation for years on his Airplanista blog. For 10 years until 2019, he hosted the popular ‘Oshbash’ social media meetup events at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.

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