Any pilot familiar with Van’s Aircraft probably could have guessed that when the company decided to build a light sport aircraft, it would deliver a lot of smiles for not much money. The kitplane company has for 40 years offered a long line of airplanes that offer impressive all-around performance on a relatively small budget. But there’s always been a catch.

You have to build the airplane yourself.

Van’s latest design is the RV-12, a two-seater with a 100-horsepower engine. It was designed to fit the Federal Aviation Administration’s light sport aircraft category, which limits aircraft to two...

Antoine Leblond, Vice President of Windows Web Services, with the Windows Store home screen. Photo: Christina Bonnington/Wired.com

Microsoft revealed Tuesday one of the key components that will be shipping with its upcoming Windows 8 platform: the Windows Store. The new software portal will launch in late February alongside the beta of Windows 8, selling applications ranging in price from $1.49 to $999.99.

To an installed base of 500 million-plus Windows users, the Windows Store presents a whole new world of software discovery and consumption. And to would-be app developers, the new platform...