January 5  2008
A French designed wood-and-fabric electric-powered flying machine took to the air recently in a 48 minute 50km flight around the southern Alps in France to be the first in a global race to apply battery power to a fixed-wing standard design type light aircraft

Called the Electra - this single-seat machine had as its sole method of propulsion a low maintenance electric motor driving a standard fixed pitch propeller

 
Recent improvements in battery electrical storage technology - mainly achieved by demands created in the mobile telephone market and then picked-up by aero-modellers - these new feather-weight lithium-ion polymer batteries made the concept feasible

"...This will be a real aeroplane that will have an airworthiness certificate"

January 2  2008
The Geneva based Aircraft Crashes Record Office has reported that 2007 was the safest year for flying with reports of only 34 accidents in the United States of America - 10 in Canada - 8 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 5 in Colombia and Indonesia

This privately funded office in Switzerland lists an accident ..."when an aircraft has been damaged as such as it is not able to be flown again and then is considered as written off"

 
News Desk records indicate that 2007 was also the safest year in which to fly in a Light Aircraft - so long as you were in a fixed-wing machine and not a Helicopter - Gyrocopter - Ultralight or Glider

Preliminary statistics have 10 fatal fixed-wings in OZ where the machine was destroyed - February Week One and Four - May Week Four - August Week One and Three - October Week Three - November Week Two and Three (x2) - December Week Two

January 1  2008
   • Wires Snare 7 Machines & 5 Lives • 
•  January Week One - One Aircraft
•  February Week Four - One Life (from Fence)
•  March Week Three - Aircraft (another Fence)
•  April Week Two - One Ultralight (clipped Fence)
•  April Week Three - One Helicopter
•  September Week One - One Glider and Pilot
•  November Week Two - One Aircraft Three lives
•  December Week Three - One Aircraft