No Barrel Section Or Fastener Woes Here

While Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Scott Carson works to bring the delayed 787 Dreamliner to market, he may take some comfort in knowing another airplane he's intimately familiar with remains on-schedule.

The Seattle Times reports Carson is scheduled to take delivery soon of a new CubCrafters Sport Cub S2 light sport plane. The aircraft is moving down the assembly line in Yakima, WA, and recently had its landing gear attached.

Carson is buying the plane for personal use. While the Sport Cub is admittedly nowhere near as advanced as a Boeing bird, Carson's plane will be equipped with modern offerings such as a glass panel, and seatbelt airbags.

No composite barrel sections or specialized fasteners here, though... and Carson may take some comfort in that, given the recent production-related woes in the Dreamliner program.

In addition to the lure of a much simplier time, Carson reportedly chose the Sport Cub due to his family's close ties to McAllister Field, where CubCrafters is based. His father, Kit, took a break from his career as a Boeing test pilot in the 1950s to work as a contract pilot.

The elder Carson flew for 18 months for Lamson Aircraft, a company working to bring a cropdusting plane to market. Though the company failed, the design lived on as the Grumman AgCat. In a touching bit of serendipity, Lamson was based in the same building where CubCrafters now resides.

"We have a shared passion," Simmons said. "Scott is very much an airplane guy, going back even to his teenage years."

FMI: www.cubcrafters.com/default.aspx